


m : H> l 



ll ■ 



■ .::.,:■ 



■ 



, Jt '!■ 'i I ■ 

111 J jt I I 






!.,•: I 



■ 



.ill 



i I 



■ 



.'; , :ih;:t , ';":..t|> 






















OS' 









P A? 






> 'P. 






i 
















« ^ 






%*^ 









V <p 












1 ff * 



$■' 



: 



'"+ <f' ^ 



A 













%v 



^ v* 1 



^ , 










^ ■*««. '. 



rp \X. V 

V 






y 



.-',' 



k 0o. 







.#' 



^ ^ 



«P 


















'- ^ ^ 









<P ,^c 









,0 0. 















- v -> 












* ^ 



' 



| 



,<0- 'rp. 



,0©, 
























v«y 









: 





















> 







. 





















A. - c, /. 












o 



v o 





















** v v 



■r' 









>a 
















■^ ^ 



*°°„ 






^ ^ 



^" 













ffio))i|iln)iN)( 



\\\\niicmi 



f^TO-03 



<§&■ 
<& 

c§i£> <ifb 

yj KJ 

<§** 4#> 



^~ 







* 






<8> 

<#* <#> 



<*> 







OUR TWO ADAMS. 



"So also it is written, The first man 
Adam became a living soul. The last 
Adam became a life-giving- Spirit." (1 
Cor. xv. 45, R. V.) 







38429 

Uo the 

Zjhousanda Who Jfcave bought and ffiead Our former l^forMa, 

with heartfelt gratitude we hopefully 

^Dedicate thia ISolumej 

believing it to be the best boo/c we have ever written, 

TJhe Jfuthor. 







CQPV- 



Copyrighted, 1899, 

By J. It. Florida & Co 

Nashville, Tenn. 






'1899 )) 





tZi 



<L~-< 



PREFACE 



The great Remedial System is necessarily coherent and 
harmonious in all its parts. Its Divine Revelations present 
a golden mean, lying between all unreasonable and irrecon- 
cilable extremes. And we believe that its spiritual truths 
may be clearly seen, if sought in the light of Revelation 
rather than in the perplexities of Science and the contra- 
dictions of Theology. 

This book has been written from a Scriptural rather than 
from a theological standpoint — from a commonsense rather 
than from a theoretical or metaphysical point of view. We 
have sought truth in the sunlight of the Sacred Word, with 
a heart beating in unison with the Divine, in all its desires 
relative to the salvation of the human family. To formu- 
late and clearly state a coherent and Scriptural scheme of 
Divine Grace, looking to the redemption and restoration of 
our ruined race, has been the one longing desire of the Au- 
thor in his arduous labors of love. 

If we have not radiated the horizon of Revealed Truth with 
new lights, we hope we have at least dispelled the dense 
darkness which, in some instances, has hung over the great 
Remedial System for many centuries. If we have failed to 
open new fountains of life, we hope we have at least set the 
dewdrops of Sacred Truth before our readers in a way that 
will lead some of them to the fountain of living waters 
already opened for the house of David and the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, because of sin and uncleanness. 

This volume has been written neither in the interest of 
(4) 



PREFACE. 



nor yet in opposition to any religions sect or Creed in 
Christendom. We have simply sought for the whole truth 
as it is in Christ, preferring that to the half-orbed truths 
found in the superficial investigations of many theorists and 



theologians. 



Hoping the perusal of this work will be as pleasant and 
profitable to our readers as its production has been to the 
Author, we are most fraternally yours, 

Lekoy McWhektek. 




03 




CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE I. PAGE 

The Mysteries of the Triune God 11 

CHAPTEE II. 
The Triunity oe the Godhead 20 

CHAPTEE III. 
The Three Persons in the Godhead 40 

CHAPTEE IY. 
The Creation of Man 58 

CHAPTEE Y. 
The Garden of Eden 88 

CHAPTEE YI. 

The Fall of Our First Adam 101 

CHAPTEE YII. 
The Eedemption of Our Eace 122 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

The Covenant of Grace 145 

CHAPTEE IX. 

The Great Eemedial System 163 

CHAPTEE X. 
The Atonement of Christ 181 

(6) 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XL PAGB 

The Trend of Six 200 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Essentials to Salvation 216 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Religion of the Cross 239 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Divine Love 260 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Laws of Divine Revelation 280 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Gospel of Christ 296 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Death of Christ 323 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Second Coming of Christ 349 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Millennial Reign of Christ 375 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Holy Bible 395 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Hell of the Bible 408 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Heaven of the Btble 419 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Our Two Adams Frontispiece 

Author's Picture 3 

Diagram of the Holy Trinity 37 

Adam and Eve 59 

The Birth of Time 65 

The Holy Angels 78 

The Fallen Angels 82 

Satan 85 

Garden of Eden (Map) 89 

Paradise 93 

Driven Out 98 

The Temptation 113 

After the Fall 114 

The Annunciation 123 

The Child Jesus 124 

Finding of Moses 143 

Heaven's Best Gift 144 

At-one-ment 180 

The Trend of Sin 201 

" Behold the Lamb of God ! " 217 

(8) 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 9 

Page 

At the Cross 238 

The Young Christ 242 

"Ye Must Be Born Again" 246 

Divine Love 261 

A Mother's Devotion 265 

Christ's Love 273 

The Soul's Awakening 281 

The Christ of the Gospel 297 

The Light of the World 302 

The Great Teacher 305 

Our Redeemer 322 

A Prisoner 326 

The Cruel Cross 330 

The High Priest of Our Profession 334 

Christ's Dual Death 338 

" He Is Risen " 343 

" Touch Me Xot " .... 347 

The Ascension 348 

The King in His Beauty on the Throne of David. 354 

Victory of the Saints 383 

A Heavenly Paradise 384 

The New Jerusalem 425 




Adam the first, to be simple in story, 

Represented the race, in the morn of its glory; 

He fell, and his fall was the fall of his race, 

With no chance of rising, except through Divine grace. 



Adam represented us under the law covenant, and through his dis- 
obedience we were all brought under its condemnation. Christ repre- 
sented us under the Covenant of Grace, and through his obedience unto 
death we were all redeemed and tendered a personal probation. 



Adam the Last, to complete the narration, 

Represented the race in the Plan of Salvation; 

So great is his name and charming his story, 

That by him we are led, through grace, back to glory. 




OUR TWO ADAMS. 

CHAPTEE I. 
THE MYSTERIES OF THE TRIUNE GOD 

Ccuist tJiou by searching find out God? (Job xi. 7.) 

HERE is a God. All nature attests this fun- 
damental fact. The footprints of the Creator 




are visible in all his works and ways. Proofs 
of the Divine Existence are spread out before us 
in such clearness and profusion as to make a lasting impres- 
sion upon the most untutored minds. The language of crea- 
tion is no other than the voice of God proclaiming his own 
eternal existence. 

The Divine Existence is also clearly seen in the light of 
Revelation. The Bible opens with the simple but sublime 
declaration: In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth. From the opening to the close of this Sacred 
Volume, the clearest possible evidence is given of the ex- 
istence of its Divine Author. His word, no less than his 
works, force us to the conclusion that there is a God. 

There is no man who does not secretly believe in the ex- 
istence of a God. The conviction of a Supreme Ruler is uni- 
versal among men. The idea of a Sovereign Deity has swept 
over every epoch in the world's history, from the creation of 

man down to the present day. There is no nation so wicked, 

(11) 



1% THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. 

no country so distant, and no age so remote, that it does not 
bear testimony to the existence of a God. And the farther 
back we go in our investigations of heathen religions the 
more clearly and forcibly will we find set forth, in their 
articles of faith, a belief in the existence of a Supreme 
Sovereign, who reigns unrivaled over the vast universe of 
nature. 

To deny the Divine Existence is to assume that one is in- 
finite in knowledge, taking cognizance of every being who 
does exist in all the realms of illimitable space. None but 
an egotist could proclaim himself an atheist. It is the fool 
who hath said in his heart, There is no God. A man might 
as well deny the existence of the sun, when he sees his gold- 
en beams and feels his animating power, as to deny the ex- 
istence of the Creator of the universe, when the heavens de- 
clare his glory, and the whole earth is full of his matchless 
power and endless praise. 

But God is a profound mystery to man. His infinity 
renders him mysterious indeed to the finite mind. Man 
might as well attempt the boundary of the boundless as to 
undertake fully to comprehend the Infinite Jehovah. In all 
our acquisitions of knowledge the Infinite ever lies infinitely 
beyond the comprehension of the finite. God is the un- 
known and unknowable quantity, in the perfect solution of 
the great problem, which would doubtless reveal to us the 
profound secret of universal existence. 

We can know but little about Deity beyond what has 
been revealed to humanity concerning the Divine. In fact, 
all that we can know of God is either expressed or implied 
in the revelations of his Word and works. We can never 



GOD A GREAT MYSTERY. 13 

hope to find out the Almighty to perfection. And yet our 
limited knowledge of God is central and fundamental to all 
other knowledge. 

God always has been and doubtless always will be a 
great mystery to all men. He is a mystery to us in his im- 
mutability. We look around and see everything with which 
we are cognizant constantly undergoing change. Change 
is written upon the very face of nature. Every visible ob- 
ject is a variable quantity. But God knows no change. 
All the Divine attributes are invariable. They change not, 
and change never. The essential elements of the Divine 
Nature ever have been and always will be just what they are 
to-day. They are immutable and eternal. God is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. In him there is no variable- 
ness, neither shadow of turning. 

God is a mystery to us in his eternal existence. We are 
the creatures of an hour, but he is without beginning of 
days or end of time. Even from everlasting to everlasting 
thou art God. Let the imagination mount aloft, and take 
her boldest possible sweep into past eternity, but she never 
can reach a period in which God did not exist. Then let 
her whirl upon her lofty wing, and dart with the velocity of 
thought for infinite ages into future eternity, and she can 
never reach the period in which God will cease to exist. 
God's is a self-existence and, consequently, a necessary and 
eternal existence. This idea of eternal existence is one of 
Divine revelation, and not of human conception. Hence 
it lies beyond the province of the finite, and is to man a 
most incomprehensible mystery. 

God is a mystery to us in his omniscience. He is infinite 



14 THE DIVINE OMNISCIENCE. 

in knowledge, and absolutely perfect in wisdom. He com- 
prehends everything, whether great or small, animate or in- 
animate, material or immaterial, throughout the immensity 
of space, as well as during the endless cycles of duration. 
All things, past and future, are just as clearly seen and as 
perfectly comprehended by him as are the plainest events 
of to-day. Known unto God are all his works from the 
foundation of the world. 

God is infinite in knowledge, but his prescience does not 
affect the nature of the things foreknown. It does not ren- 
der necessary that which is only contingent; neither does it 
reduce to a contingency that which is an absolute necessity. 
It is foolish in the finite to affirm that the Infinite could not 
foreknow future events unless they were necessitated. It 
is a childish way of begging the question. 

Events come to pass not because they are foreknown, but 
they are foreknown because they will come to pass. They 
are not projections from the Divine Omnipotence, but re- 
flections from the Divine Omniscience. God has made 
some things necessary, and others contingent. The neces- 
sary events he knows as such — knows they can occur only 
as he predetermined. The contingent events he knows hang 
upon the volitions and actions of his accountable creatures. 
But, he knows perfectly just what the will and conduct of 
each creature will be; and hence he is able to determine, 
beforehand, how all contingent as well as necessary events 
will terminate. Divine Omniscience penetrates with the ut- 
most precision all the circumstances upon which contingent 
events turn; and sees, most clearly and certainly, the end 
from the beginning. A contingent event may be a certain- 



FOREKNOWLEDGE NOT A CAUSE. 15 

ty, but it cannot be a necessity, for contingent acts are vol- 
untary, not coercive. 

But if God's foreknowledge necessitates in the least man's 
future volition or action, then it necessarily places them both 
under its absolute dominion and control. A foreknowledge 
which dominates man's volition in one particular must, 
of necessity, override his freedom of will in all things, 
since all are alike foreknowm. But this would rob our first 
Adam of his freedom of choice in the garden of Eden, and 
exonerate him from all culpability with reference to the in- 
troduction of sin into the world. If the Divine prescience 
implies absolute necessity in human action, then God could 
not constitute a contingency; and this limits the Divine 
power. Or, if he did constitute a contingency, he could not 
foreknow what the result would be; and this would limit his 
foreknowledge. 

But, once more, foreknowledge is not a cause of action. 
The Divine prescience is not an active power. All knowl- 
edge is passive in its nature, possessing only a relative exist- 
ence in the mind. And hence it is powerless in itself to go 
abroad and cause, or even influence, the actions of others. 
Then foreknowledge cannot necessitate. Even the Divine 
foreknowledge can have no necessitating influence upon any 
event, whether past, present, or future, from the simple fact 
that its passivity cannot be converted into activity. 

God is a mystery to us in his omnipotence. He possesses 
all power. He created and sustains this vast universe by 
the might of his wonderful power, and could just as easily 
sustain a million such universes, without calling into requi- 
sition the smallest fractional part of his omnipotent energy. 



16 HIS OMNIPRESENCE. 

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the 
glory ... in thine hand is power and might . . . 
to make great and to give strength unto all. He stood and 
measured the earth; he beheld, and drove asunder the na- 
tions, and the everlasting mountains were scattered. Infi- 
nite power belongeth unto God. 

And yet there are many things which do not fall within 
the province of omnipotence. This Infinite Power cannot 
perform a single act inconsistent w r ith the Divine nature. 
One divine attribute cannot cross nor contradict another. 
Hence there are things which the Omnipotent Jehovah can- 
not do, because they are not in harmony with his Divine na- 
ture and holy laws. The Infinite has no advantage over the 
finite in the performance of impossibilities. 

God is a great mystery to us in his omnipresence. He is 
everywhere present, at the same time, in the person of the 
Holy Spirit. The Psalmist expressed this thought beau- 
tifully when he said: Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, 
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into 
heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold 
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and 
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy 
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Do not 
I fill heaven, saith the Lord? Behold heaven, and the 
heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee! Though they dig 
down into hell, there shall my hand take them; though 
they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. 

Yes, Deity is everywhere. Heaven, earth, and hell are 
all full of God. Heaven is full of God; and it is his wholly 
reconciled presence, his divine approbation, his approving 



HIS TRIUNE EXISTENCE. 17 

smiles and constant benedictions, that make heaven a place 
of perfect peace, perpetual joys, and eternal blessedness to 
all its countless inhabitants. 

The earth is full of God; and it is his partially recon- 
ciled presence, his occasional smiles and approbation, which 
make it a place of partial joy, where we sometimes get a 
foretaste of that peace which the world cannot give, that 
boundless joy which awaits us in the glory land. 

But hell is also full of God; and it is his wholly unrec- 
onciled presence, his constant frowns and fiery indignation, 
that make hell a place of endless woe and eternal death, 
where the worm dieth not and the fire is never quenched. 
A consuming fire, the hell of hells, are the wrath and indig- 
nation of an angry God. 

But God is possibly the greatest mystery to us in his tri- 
une existence. There is only one God, but in the unity of 
the Godhead there are three Divine Persons, the Father, 
the Son, and Holy Spirit; and these three are one. They 
are three in person and office, but one in all the essential 
elements and attributes of Deity. And, in our highest and 
grandest conceptions of Deity we see him, three in one, the 
Eternal God, Creator of all things, God over all, and blessed 
for evermore. We see him in the person of the Holy Spirit, 
an omnipresent, illuminating, quickening, saving, and sanc- 
tifying God. We see him in the person of the Son, an in- 
carnate, a crucified, risen, and ascended God, the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, sitting at the right-hand of the Maj- 
esty on high, where he ever liveth to intercede for his peo- 
ple. We see him in the person of the Father, in all his 
wonted grandeur and glory, not a being of flesh and blood, 



18 SHADOWS OF THE INFINITE. 

but a great spiritual Being, seated upon his throne of per- 
fection in the Heaven of heavens, that great white throne 
from beneath which flows in all its crystal purity the river 
of the water of life — that throne around which angels and 
archangels, seraphim and cherubim, saints, elders, and all the 
sons and daughters of God, shall vie eternally, casting their 
crowns and trophies at his feet, bowing, and crying, Holy, 
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which w r as, and is, and is 
to come, unto whom be glory, and power, and dominion 
both now and forever, world without end. Amen. 

These great mysteries are shadows of the Infinite, pene- 
trated, and even perforated, by the glorious rays of Divine 
Revelation. They are the natural supplemented by the su- 
pernatural, the temporal conjoined to the eternal; and none 
can hope fully to comprehend them in this life. 

The Infinite God is infinitely mysterious to man. But a 
mystery in Biblical phraseology is simply a secret or hidden 
truth into which it is necessary to be initiated before we 
can comprehend it fully. Only let the veil be lifted, the se- 
cret revealed, and we no longer see in part, through a glass 
darkly, but comprehend perfectly these hitherto mysterious 
subjects. 

The mysteries of the Triune God may be above, but they 
are not contrary to, human reason. The soul and center of 
our holy religion — God manifest in the flesh — is a mystery 
that no finite mind can solve alone; for to the finite mind 
all infinite truths are necessarily more or less mysterious, 
if, for a perfect knowledge of them, we are wholly depend- 
ent upon human reason. The Infinite Mind only can of it- 
self fully comprehend and perfectly reveal infinite truths to 



MANY MYSTERIOUS THINGS. 19 

finite beings. Mysteries, then, stand at the limit of our 
present spiritual attainments. They are the goals of our 
future investigations, the bonanzas of our future discov- 
eries. 

There are many mysterious things to man in the works as 
well as in the Word of God. All scientific subjects, whether 
of matter or mind, are environed more or less with mysteries. 
The child can ask questions about the most commonplace 
things of this life which will silence the most profound phi- 
losophers of earth. Everything, whether animate or inani- 
mate, is, either directly or indirectly, associated with the 
mysterious. Knowledge and ignorance, light and dark- 
ness, truth and error, go hand in hand through this life in 
all the researches of the finite after the hidden treasuries of 
the Infinite. Fortunately for humanity, however, it is the 
province of Christian faith to go where human science and 
finite reason are utter strangers. 

But to the Infinite and Omniscient Mind there is no such 
thing as a mystery, from the simple fact that no truth can 
transcend the comprehension of the Almighty. He looks 
upon all sides and into all phases of every subject he con- 
templates; and hence sees everything just as it is, without 
the least difficulties or obscurities overshadowing his uni- 
versal investigations. 





CHAPTEE II. 

THE TRIUNITY OF THE GODHEAD. 

And these tlrree are one. (John v. 7.) 

HE Triune God is not three Gods in one, but 
three Divine Persons, each possessing all the 
essentials of the Divine nature in an equal or in- 
finite degree. The least rational of all Theistic 
theories is that of a base, bald unitarianism; while the most 
rational and spiritual conception of God known to man is 
that which recognizes the three Persons, bearing the Divine 
nature in the active, loving unity of their eternally triune ex- 
istence. A God essentially and eternally active in all the 
forms of infinite life and the functions of infinite love can 
be found only in the mutual relations that necessarily exist 
between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

The Godhead 
is a substantial verity. It embodies in itself all there is of 
Deity. In it the divine nature is replete, both in its essen- 
tials and nonessentials, to the existence of a Divine Being. 
It is composed of the only three Divine Persons who ever 
existed. And outside of this Godhead, or the Persons com- 
posing the same, there is not to be found in all the broad 
domains of the universe a single element or attribute essen- 
tial to divinity. We cannot tell in just what the eternal 
verity of the Godhead consists, unless it be in these un- 
created and essential elements to the existence of the Divine 
(20) 



THE WORD PERSON. 21 

nature. And by the Divine nature we mean Divinity itself. 
And yet the term Godhead, like our word Cabinet, is not an 
entity, but an abstraction, pointing, however, to a com- 
bination of entities — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — of 
which it is composed. 

The word God itself usually refers to but one Person 
in the Godhead, but sometimes to the entire Trinity. The 
context, if understood, will enable us usually to tell to which 
Person reference is made; otherwise we must interpret scrip- 
ture by scripture. But we must bear these important facts in 
mind if we would correctly understand the many Scriptural 
references to God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
Spirit, or to all of these as united in the Godhead. 

The word Person is but a name, it is true. It has only a 
nominal existence, but it represents an entity in each of the 
Beings composing the Godhead. When words are used in 
a generic sense they are mere conceptions of the mind, but 
when they stand for specific things they necessarily repre- 
sent realities. The several names by which the three Per- 
sons of the Godhead are called are so many undying echoes 
from the eternal shores. 

The term Godhead should never be confounded with the 
word Divinity, for they are not synonymous. It takes all 
three of the Divine Persons to constitute the Godhead. 
Neither taken separately is the Godhead. Each is of the 
Godhead, and all taken together are the Godhead. It is 
like this: A father, mother, and child constitute a family. 
The father is not the family, but simply a member thereof. 
So with the mother and the child. Separately they are only 
one of the family; together they are the family. In the 



22 THE GODHEAD ABSOLUTE. 

term Godhead the Bible evidently embraces the only three 
Persons in the Divine Family. 

The Godhead is absolute rather than relative in each of 
its Divine Personalities. Each Being has an uncreated and 
eternal existence. True, the forms in which the Father and 
the Son have been revealed to us may be, and doubtless are, 
relative in their essence and existence; but not so with the 
purely spiritual essence of either of the Divine Persons in 
the Godhead. a$o matter where this purely spiritual es- 
sence is found, it is, beyond question, uncreated, absolute, 
and eternal; for in the absolute and essential elements and 
attributes of Deity the Godhead never has known any 
change. It remains the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 
In other words, the Godhead is infinite in its purely spirit- 
ual essence, but finite in its bodily forms. It is infinite in 
all the essentials to Deity, but finite in all the nonessen- 
tials. The essentials are uncreated; the nonessentials have 
been called into existence. What we have here affirmed 
of the Godhead as a unit is preeminently true of the First 
and Second Persons constituting the same. The refined 
forms or spiritual bodies in which the Father and the Son 
have been revealed to us were doubtless brought into exist- 
ence in connection with the creation of the universe, and as- 
sumed by them as suitable mediums through which to com- 
municate with their intelligent creatures. For we can have 
no definite conception of uncreated matter, however refined 
or remote it maj be from any form of the material with 
which we are cognizant. 

The facts are these: This Triune God has seen fit to re- 
veal himself to us in the Persons of the Father and the Son, 



A REVEALED FACT. 23 

as Beings possessing bodily forms, in the image of which 
our bodies have been fashioned, without informing us di- 
rectly as to whether these divine forms are finite or infinite, 
temporal or eternal. But the facts above stated are clearly 
implied in and reasonably inferred from the plain teachings 
of the Divine Word. 

But the Godhead, though clearly revealed as a fact, 
and its nature and bearings partially explained, nevertheless 
lies, in part at least, out of reach of the explorations of 
the finite mind. And hence, in many of its aspects, it is 
above and beyond us, like the beautiful burning stars which 
are clearly visible to the naked eye in one of their aspects, 
but in all others hid away in the infinite depths of unlimited 
space. 

The infinite fullness of the Godhead is found in each of 
its members. For, even in the Incarnate Christ dwelt all 
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, ^ow this fullness con- 
sists simply in all the essential elements and attributes of the 
Divine nature — that which constitutes one a Divine Being. 
And since these essentials to Deity are possessed by each Per- 
son in the Godhead to an infinite degree, every attribute of 
the Divine nature, no matter where found, is necessarily in 
harmony with every other attribute. And hence there is ab- 
solute harmony existing between the three Persons in the 
Godhead, at all times, and relative to all things. They are, 
always have been, and always will be, a Divine and insepara- 
ble unity in all their words, works, and ways. 

The Tuixtty in the Godhead 
is essential to its existence. The word Godhead itself im- 



24 THE TRINE IDEA. 

plies a plurality of Divine Persons. Therefore the Holy 
Trinity is not simply a threefold manifestation of Deity, or 
a trine method of Divine manifestation by one Being; but 
it is three Divine Beings, separate and distinct in personali- 
ty each from the other. 

The trine existence of Deity is a Bible idea. If Scripture 
language has any definite meaning at all, the Trinality is a 
cardinal doctrine of Divine Revelation. The Bible evi- 
dently and unequivocally teaches that in the unity of the 
Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons coequal and co- 
eternal each with the others; for all the attributes essen- 
tial to Deity are plainly and most emphatically ascribed to 
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

The first verse in the Bible embodies this Trine Idea, in 
the use of a plural noun which is translated God. This 
noun occurs often in Revelation, and would doubtless be 
better translated the Triune God, or the Godhead; for it 
can refer to nothing short of the Holy Trinity. And there 
is no warrant in the Bible for destroying the Trinity, by re- 
ferring all references to it to the offices set forth in the great 
Remedial System. 

The trine existence of Deity is not a discovery of rea- 
son, but a revealed truth, appealing to our faith for cre- 
dence. The first Adam received this doctrine direct from 
Divine lips, and it was handed down from generation to 
generation by tradition, so that traces have been found in 
all ages and among all nations of the earth. But, admitting 
that this truth may lie within the boundaries of unrevealed 
knowledge, still it remains 1 a fact fully revealed that, while 
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit constitute the one only 



BUT ONE GOD. 25 

true and living God, they are, at the same time, Three in 
Person, and consequently Three in Being; for we cannot 
conceive of a separate and distinct personality in the ab- 
sence of a corresponding separate and distinct being. This 
doctrine of the Tripersonality of the Godhead is no in- 
fringement upon the Divine Unity, as we see it; but rather 
a confirmation of it, since there can be no unity in the ab- 
sence of a plurality. 

This theory does not give us Three Gods, as you may sup- 
pose. Humanity docs not consist in personality or being. 
If it did, you would be humanity. But you are not. Hu- 
manity has its foundation in a human nature, which is a 
unit — a single thing — though possessed by multiplied mil- 
lions of beings. Humanity is multitudinous in person or be- 
ing, but it is only one in nature and in name — humanity — 
man. So Deity does not consist in Personality or Being 
either: but its foundation rests in the Divine nature, and 
that is also a unit, a single thing; and hence we can have a plu- 
rality of Persons or Beings, but only one Divinity or Deity, 
one Divine nature, one God. It takes every human being 
in existence to constitute the unit — the one thing — humani- 
ty. So it requires every Divine Being in existence to con- 
stitute the Divine unit — the one thing — Divinity, or the one 
only true and living God. There are many human beings, 
but there is only one humanity. So there are three Divine 
Beings, but there is only one Divinity — one God. 

There are not three Gods in the Godhead, constituting but 
one God. Xeither are there three Beings in the Holy Trin- 
ity, constituting but one Being. But there are three sepa- 
rate and distinct Beings in the Godhead, constituting the one 



26 NO ONE-PERSON DEITY. 

only true and living God. To admit the Tripersonality of 
the Godhead, and then deny that they are separate and dis- 
tinct in Being, is self-contradictory and absurd. 

It is unreasonable to suppose that Deity in a single per- 
son dwelt alone, in absolute solitude during past eternity; 
for Divine love demands a Divine Being upon which to be- 
stow its affections, and without this plurality of Persons 
in the Godhead Deity would be robbed of its sweetest and 
purest fellowship. We cannot believe that God was one, 
lone, fellowless Being, from all eternity — a One-Person Dei- 
ty, without relation, fellowship, or environment — the Only 
Being in existence; and hence without a sphere of sympa- 
thy, trust, or love, until after the creation of other beings. 
"We much prefer to believe that in the Trinal existence of 
the Godhead the Eternal Three had ever found mutual love, 
confidence, and enjoyment in each other's society. For 
nothing short of the associations of an eternal and Infinite 
Being could ever fully satisfy the infinite love of another 
Eternal Being. But to deny the Tripersonal existence of 
God, and force him to turn the fountain of his infinite love 
in upon himself for an eternity, is to make him the most self- 
ish of all beings that have ever had an existence. 

The Trinity has reference not merely to time, for God is 
eternally Trinal in Person or Being. The Triune God is 
absolutely eternal with reference to his Trinal existence, 
being without beginning of days or end of time. True, our 
knowledge of the Holy Trinity, with reference to its rela- 
tions as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is confined to the 
practical workings of the great Remedial System. We can 
know only so much about the Trinal existence of God as has 



THE CHRISTIAN'S FAITH-VISION. 27 

been revealed in his Word and his works. There is no other 
source of information open to ns on this sacred subject. 
And yet the fact forces itself upon ns that each Person in 
the Holy Trinity is coequal and coeternal with the others, 
all constituting the eternally Triune God. 

The mutual discourses, and relative actions of these Three 
Persons, as set forth in the Holy Scriptures, make the fact 
of their separate and distinct Personality just as manifest as 
any definition could possibly have done. If they are not sep- 
arate, self-conscious Beings, then those evangelical narra- 
tives which so repeatedly represent them as such must be 
mere delusive romances, utterly unworthy of our credence. 

This doctrine of the Trinity, if true, is a necessary pos- 
tulate of all science, philosophy, and religion. Then the 
sphere of reason in relation to this subject is limited, and 
hence liable to be abused. This question is not irrational, 
but simply above human reason, and consequently should 
be received with all the heart as a revealed truth; for it 
does not contain an element that contradicts reason, and it 
is in perfect harmony with our religious experiences; for 
our fellowship is with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Here is the Christian's faith-vision of the Holy Trinity: 

He sees God the Father on his throne, 

Around which seraphs vie; 
While Christ, the Son, upon his right, 

In glory draweth nigh. 

He sees God the Son receive his own, 

The mighty Conquering One; 
While God the Spirit maketh known 

Who his holy will hath done. 



28 THE HOLY TRINITY. 

He sees God the Spirit as best he can, 

In God the Father and the Son; 
For, otherwise, hath seen no man 

The whole of Thee in One. 

The proofs of the Trinal existence of God are many and 
varied. Christ prayed to his Father; but, if there be no 
plurality of Persons in the Godhead, he simply offered, and 
then answered his own prayers. The Father withdrew his 
Spirit from the Son as he hung in agonies upon the cross; 
but if they are One in Person or Being, then the Father 
simply forsook himself, which is an impossibility. All pow- 
er was given to Christ; but by whom, if there be but one 
Person in the Godhead, but by himself? The Savior is to 
deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father — that is 
to say, to himself, if there be no Trinity of Persons in the 
Godhead. "We pray to and worship in the name of the Fa- 
ther, Son, and Holy Spirit, just as the Bible authorizes us 
to do time and again; but, if they are not Three in Per- 
son, we worship a Plurality, when we should worship but 
One Being. 

But this Holy Trinity was once on earth. The Three Per- 
sons were all here at the same time, as separate and distinct 
Beings. It was at the baptism of Christ. The Spirit de- 
scended in the form or resemblance of a dove, and rested 
upon the Savior's head; and the Father spoke from the ra- 
diant skies, in recognition of his beloved Son, bidding us 
hear him in all things pertaining to our timely and eternal 
interests. 

But the Apostolic Benediction and Baptismal Formula 
ought to settle this question of the Trinity at once and for- 



THE UNITY OF THE GODHEAD. 29 

ever: for, if they do not teach the Tripersonality of the 
Godhead, the distinction between Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost is but a vain and useless repetition of names, in the 
pronunciation of a most sacred benediction, and in the ad- 
ministration of a most solemn ordinance. In this benediction 
and baptismal formula, the Three Persons in the Godhead are 
conjoined as the center and source of all temporal and spirit- 
ual blessings. 

This idea or theory of the Holy Trinity also combines 
and reconciles all the half truths of the popular heresies of 
Deism, Pantheism, and Polytheism, which have ever at- 
tained to any great degree of power among thinking men. 
This theory gathers up all the straggling rays of light found 
in these human systems of false religions, and harmonizes 
them. It gives Deism its "Exalted Being," in the Person 
of God the Father. It presents Pantheism with its c * Sum 
of all Creative Life," in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who 
is immanent in all things — the current of all light, life, and 
love in the spirit world. It also reveals to Polytheism, in 
the Person of the Incarnate Son, all the fullness of the God- 
head in bodily human form, unfolding the ethical nature of 
Deity, and exemplifying the " Divine existence in a Plural- 
ity of Persons," in each of whom are embodied all the essen- 
tial elements and attributes of the Divine nature. 

The Unity of the Godhead 
is a Bible doctrine. There is but One God. u These three 
are one." But they cannot be one in the same sense in 
which they are three. Therefore they cannot be one either 
in Person or in Beinsr. These three distinct Personalities 



30 THREE CONSTITUTE ONE. 

could not possibly be blended into one and the same iden- 
tical Being; for contradictions are impossible, even with Di- 
vine Beings. And such a union, were it possible, would 
necessarily destroy all distinction of Personality in the God- 
head. But to affirm that they are three in one sense, and 
one in another sense, involves no contradiction, and is evi- 
dently in harmony with Revelation on this subject. 

There is unity in the Godhead. The Three Persons con- 
stitute but One God. They are oue, not in a numerical, nor 
yet in an arbitrary, sense, for this were impossible; but in a 
very important and significant sense. They are one in all 
that is essential to constitute each or either of them a Di- 
vine Being. In other words, they are one in the common 
possession of all the essential elements and infinite attributes 
of the Divine Nature — of Divinity. They can only be one 
in some sense consistent with the revealed fact of their Per- 
sonal Plurality. And this is evidently the highest and most 
important sense in which the Holy Trinity could constitute 
a Divine Unity that would make of these three distinct 
Beings but One God. They are one in nature. 

It is folly to contend that there is no sense in which a 
Personal Trinity is consistent with the Divine Unity of the 
Godhead. There are two sides to every question, even to 
revealed facts. Two opposites are essential to the existence 
of every whole truth. One side gives us but half the truth. 
The two sides must unite to give us the wiiole truth, just as 
the union of two opposites in chemistry gives us a perfect com- 
bination. Man's mortality does not disprove his immortal- 
ity. Reaction is dependent upon action. And so the Di- 
vine Unity is hinged upon the Holy Trinity; for there could 



BAPTISMAL FORMULA. 31 

be no Unity without Plurality in the Godhead, no more than 
there could be reaction without action in the natural 
world. 

The gift of life is the prerogative of the Divine alone. But 
each Person in the Holy Trinity is represented as a Life- 
Communicator; therefore they are all Divine Beings, con- 
stituting, in their eternal verities, the Eternal Unity of the 
Godhead. Hence we most emphatically declare in favor of 
the Divine Unity, the Oneness of Deity. There is none 
other God but One. 

In the Apostolic benediction and baptismal formula, al- 
ready referred to, the hallowed names of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost are woven together, where they will ever 
stand in a union as imperishable as that which is to be found 
in the Divine nature itself, represented by each of them, in 
their respective Personalities. 

We cannot conceive of the Father and Son as mere ab- 
stract, immaterial Beings; nor yet simply as pure, nonem- 
bodied Spirits, without confounding them with the Holy 
Spirit, and thus destroying both the Trinity and the Unity 
of the Godhead in our conceptions. 

Then the One-Person idea of the Trinity destroys the 
Unity as well as the Plurality of the Godhead, for Ave can- 
not have union where there is but one to unite. The Fa- 
ther is not literally in the Son, neither is the Son literally in 
the Father. Hence we cannot believe in the absolute or lit- 
eral Oneness of the Eternal Three. Xor can we believe in 
the Tripersonality of but One Divine Being. Either of 
these doctrines presents insurmountable barriers to our minds. 
And yet we do most cordially indorse the doctrines both of 



32 THE LOGIC OF FACTS. 

the Trinity and Unity of the Godhead, as we understand 
them to be revealed in God's "Word. 

The comparison drawn by the apostle between the Father 
and the Son proves clearly that they were not One in Per- 
son or Being, for you cannot compare a person to himself. 
They were equal in glory, and so much alike in Person that 
Paul says Christ was the brightness of the Father's glory, 
and the express image of his Person. An object and its 
image cannot be identical any more than cause and effect 
or a substance and its shadow. It is in harmony with nei- 
ther the logic of facts nor the laws of language to identify 
a person or being with his own image. The idea embraces 
in itself the most palpable absurdity. 

But the Savior's prayer settles this question. He prayed 
for the unity of his disciples, that they might be one in the 
same sense that he and his Father were one. ¥ow Jesus 
did not pray for the literal, personal oneness of all his disci- 
ples. It was simply a oneness in will, words, works, and 
ways that he wanted; just such a unity as existed between 
him and his Father — a unity of purpose and power. This 
makes them one in the most intimate and important unity 
of thought, feeling, and faith possible to fallen men. The 
Three Persons in the Godhead are One in the perfect har- 
mony of all their infinite attributes and the inseparable 
unity of the Divine nature. 

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are obviously equal con- 
stituents of the One Godhead, but we evidentl} T sustain 
very different relations to each of them, and each of them 
necessarily sustain different relations to us and our race. 
To the first we sustain the relation of children to a Heaven- 



THE DIVINE UNITY. 33 

ly Father; to the second that of the saved to a Savior; and 
to the third that of the comforted to a Comforter. But if 
they were one and the same in Person or Being, these dif- 
ferent relations could not possibly exist. 

The Divine Unity doubtless refers to the oneness of the 
Divine nature, possessed alike by each Person in the Godhead. 
And one Infinite Being no more excludes a second or third 
such Being than one finite being excludes the existence of 
other finite beings. The uncreated existence of one Divine 
Personality rather proves the possibility than the impossi- 
bility of the existence of a second or third such uncreated 
Being. But, after all, variety in harmony gives us the most 
desirable unity possible. Such is the essential unity for 
which Christ prayed when he said, That they may be one, 
Father, even as we are one. Xow, according to this theory, 
neither the superiority of the Father, the incarnation of the 
Son, nor the purely spiritual existence of the Holy Ghost 
affects, in the least, the Divine Unity of the Godhead. 

The Divine nature is a unit in the three Divine Persons. 
But we repeat it, Deity or Divinity does not consist in Per- 
sonality or Being. Like humanity, it is composed of cer- 
tain essential elements and attributes. And every Being 
possessing these essentials is Divine. There is only one set 
of Divine attributes, but there are three Divine Beings to 
wear them. There is but one Divine Xature, but it clothes 
a plurality of Divine Persons. Hence, while we have three 
Divine Beings, we have, substantially, but One God. The 
Divine nature in each Person is identically the same in 
every element and attribute essential to Divinity. And 
these essentials are all the same in degree, as well as in kind; 



34 THE TRIUNITY. 

for they are all infinite and eternal. And consequently a 
want of the slightest distinction or difference in the eternal 
nature of the three Divine Beings forever excludes even the 
possibility of a plurality of Gods in the Eternal Unity of 
the Godhead. 

The Triuxity of the Godhead 

is found in the fact that it embraces a Threefold Per- 
sonality, which is clothed with a Divine nature, con- 
stituting it the one only true and living God. Ac- 
cording to this theory, you see, the Unity of the God- 
head naturally and necessarily proves its Plurality, while 
its Plurality just as necessarily and naturally issues in its 
Unity. The Oneness of the three Divine Persons must, of 
necessity, be a Unity of the most perfect type. And that is 
the charater of Unity found in the infinite perfections of the 
Three Persons constituting the Godhead. 

We cannot believe in a metaphysical Trinity, neither can 
we believe in an organic Unity. We are forced to reject the 
idea of the absolute Personal Unity of God; for the Di- 
vine Unity is not more distinctly taught in the Bible than is 
the Divine Trinity, and it certainly is less objectionable to 
reject the idea of a Personal Unity than to discard the Tri- 
personality of the Godhead. 

In the economy of creation, providence, and grace, the 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in their cooperative agencies, 
are evidently set forth as a Threefold existence in the Uni- 
ty of one Divine nature. And in their work the operation 
of the Three Persons is in the order of their position in the 
Godhead. The beginning is of the Father, the establish- 
ment is of the Son, and the completion is of the Holy Spirit. 



A TRINITY OF PERSONS. 35 

AVe believe that the Scriptures teach that the Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit are Three in Being, and that these Three 
Beings are one God. They evidently teach that there is a 
Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead. We know 
that God is three in some sense and one in some sense. 
"And these three are one." This gives ns our Trinity in 
Unity, or our Tri unity. 

The Old Testament clearly teaches the doctrine of the 
Tri unity of the Godhead. Us and our are common forms 
of the pronouns used by the Father in addressing the Son 
and Holy Spirit with reference to their joint work in crea- 
tion and providence. And to assume that this Triimity 
consists in the blending of three spiritual natures in one in- 
finite essence is to make an assumption unwarranted by Di- 
vine Revelation. 

AYe have already seen that each Person in the Godhead 
possesses every essential element and attribute of Deity, and 
that, too, in an infinite degree. Xow this naturally and nec- 
essarily renders them exactly equal, or one in will and wis- 
dom, love and mercy, purpose and power. And is not this 
oneness enough to satisfy those who would worship, in God, 
a Divine Unity? 

But the difficult question is not so much how one can be 
three as how three can be one. There can be but one com- 
mon sense solution of this complicated problem, and that is 
this: AVhen there is a want of common sense in a literal 
interpretation of Scripture, we are justifiable in giving it a 
figurative or a spiritual meaning which will make it harmo- 
nize with other revealed truths relative to the same subject. 

Again, we cannot conceive of, much less can we believe 



36 TRIPERSONALITY. 

in, an Impersonal Father, an Impersonal Son, or an Imper- 
sonal Spirit, no matter whether we think of them separately 
and apart or with direct reference to their closest possible 
unity. The idea of their distinct Personality will associ- 
ate itself with our thoughts of them, even though we disbe- 
lieve in their Tripersonality. We might as well try to think 
of the separate members of a business firm composed of three 
men, who are one in the eyes of the law, because of their 
union .in this relation, without recognizing their separate and 
distinct individuality. Neither can be done. Certainly, 
then, our theory of the Triunity of the Godhead is admissi- 
ble. 

One circle cannot have three centers, but three circles 
may have one common center. So one Divine Being cannot 
have embodied in his Unity three Divine Persons. But 
three Divine Beings may be coexistent with each other, all 
possessing certain essentials which, centering in a common 
Divine nature, give a harmonious unity which constitutes the 
Eternal Oneness of our Triune God. 

On the opposite page we present in diagram our idea of 
the Triunity of the Godhead. 

Here are three distinct circles, all of whose centers coin- 
cide, giving to each a common center. This represents our 
Holy Trinity with a common Unity, centering in the essen- 
tial elements and attributes of Deity. 

The word Godhead is a Scriptural term, and evidently im- 
plies the Triune existence of Deity. This Triunity of the 
Godhead is one of the invisible things which is so clearly 
seen by the things which were made visible. There is a tri- 
unity in almost everything in nature. There are three sepa- 



t yAeJH IRD^ 




DIAGRAM OF THE HOLY TRINITY. 

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son. and of the Holy Ghost." 
(Matt, xxviii. 19.) 

"For there are three that bear record 
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the 
Holy Ghost: and these three are one.'" 
B (1 John v. 7.) 



A PERSONAL IDENTITY. 39 

rate and distinct kingdoms in the natural world (the animal, 
vegetable, and mineral), and yet they are one creation, 
not one kingdom. This Trinnity is also imaged in man 
himself. He is three in one, body, soul, and spirit in one man; 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one God. Nature abounds 
with analogies illustrative of the Trinnity of the Godhead. 
The tree, the river, and the sun are among the most striking 
examples. These analogies, it is true, fall short of giving us 
a perfect insight into the nature of the triune existence of 
Deity, but they illustrate very forcibly the fact of that mys- 
terious existence. 

But each Person in the Holy Trinity possesses and pre- 
serves a Personal Identity of his own. Therefore they must 
have separate and distinct faculties of mind and soul, as well 
as functions peculiar to their several offices and relations to 
each other and the universe around them. There is some- 
thing aside from the essentials to Deity which characterizes 
each of them — something not possessed by either of the oth- 
er two. For, if they were all exactly alike in every respect, 
their Personal Identity would be gone, and this would re- 
solve them into One Being as well as one God. Either of 
these Persons is an independent Being, but neither of them 
is God independent of and apart from the other two; for it 
takes the Entire Trinity to constitute the Divine Unity, or 
the Three Persons to make the One God. 

This doctrine of the Trinnity of the Godhead is a practi- 
cal and precious one. It furnishes sinful man a Sovereign 
Ruler, a merciful Mediator, and a Soul-Sanctifier. Man's 
needs demand just such a Triune God as the Bible presents 
to the world. 




CHAPTEE III. 

THE THREE PERSONS m THE GODHEAD. 

In t/ie name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matt. 

xxviii. 19.) 

God the Father 

S the First Person in the Godhead. He is the 
Recognized Head of the Holy Trinity. He is 
the Umpire of the Eternal Council. He is the 
President of the Divine Cabinet. He is the 
Chief Executive of the Universe. 

God the Father is greater than either of the other two Per- 
sons in the Godhead. His superiority does not lie along the 
line of an extra Divine endowment. It is found in the of- 
fice he fills and in the relations he sustains to the created 
and uncreated intelligences of the universe over which he 
presides as the God and Father of all. 

The Father's commands are supreme in all the wide realms 
of matter and mind. Growing vegetation, ripening fruits, 
running waters, and rolling worlds are all obedient to 
his word. At his Divine command the dark clouds 
spread their sable wings, the lurid lightnings play upon 
the brow of the angry storm, and the deep-toned thun- 
ders roll along the vaulted skies above. In response 
to his Divine decrees the planets revolve, the suns shine 
and moons wax and wane forever. Magnificent systems 
of worlds come and go at his bidding. The empire of 

mind is not less obedient to his word. "When the eternal 

(40) 



THE FATHER SUPREME. 41 

fiat goes forth all must obey. From the lowest forms of his 
intelligent creatures up through the higher orders of arch- 
angels to the Eternal Son, who shares his Royal Throne, 
there is a universal recognition of the Father's Divine right 
to reign supreme over all the broad empire of intellectual 
thought. 

Christ recognized the Father's superiority. He said plain- 
ly, My Father is greater than I; and he proposes, at the 
end of time, to turn his kingdom over and become subject 
himself to the Father, that he may be all in all. And yet 
with reference to his Divinity he claimed perfect equality 
with God the Father. But what dutiful, affectionate son 
does not recognize the superiority of his father, though he 
may be the express image of his honored sire, and the wiser 
man of the two? Christ, as the Lord from heaven, the 
world's Messiah, and the Mediator between God and man, 
was subordinate in all things, yielding constant submission 
and paying perfect homage to his Heavenly Father. 

God the Father is not a Being of flesh and blood, but he 
evidently possesses a spiritual body. There is a difference 
between pure spirit and spiritualized matter. One is visible 
and tangible, while the other is not, at least to finite beings. 
It follows, then, that God the Father, like man, who was 
created in the Divine image and after the Divine likeness, 
is invisible to us when reference is had to the pure spirit; 
but visible when we refer to the body in which the pure 
spirit dwells. God the Father has a great spiritual body, 
similar but superior to those which Christians will possess 
in their glorified state, when this earthy shall bear the im- 
age of the heavenly. 



42 THE FATHER VISIBLE. 

The Father, like the Son, is evidently a visible, tangible 
Being; for the Son is said to be in the brightness of the Fa- 
ther's glory and the express image of his person. This is 
evidence the most conclusive to my mind of the Father's 
materiality; because we know that the incarnate Son here 
referred to was in possession of a visible, tangible body. 
But, again, Christ is said to have been " in the form of God " 
prior to his incarnation, which evidently teaches us that he 
was similar in form to God the Father before his manifesta- 
tion in the flesh. 

But the visible body of the Father is not God. It is no 
part of the Divine nature. It is simply the body of the 
First Person in the Godhead. It is not even the Father, 
but something which belongs to the Father. ]N~o doubt but 
the substance of this spiritual body is vastly superior in 
quality to that found in the spiritual bodies of even his most 
exalted creatures. To affirm that the Father is without 
bodily shape or parts, simply because it is said, God is a 
Spirit, is a gratuitous assumption, contradicted by the Bible 
every time it refers to any member of his body. We might 
just as reasonably affirm the same of man, because at his 
creation he was called a living soul. 

Those who worship God the Father simply as a Pure 
Spirit worship him under the most unfavorable circumstan- 
ces possible; while those who worship both the Father and 
the Son, according to the Bible representation of them as 
visible, tangible Beings, worship under the pleasantest and 
easiest circumstances imaginable; for the Father must be 
more or less naturalized in our conceptions in order to bring 
him within the range of our human thoughts and the scope 



THE INCARNATE SON. 43 

of our filial affection. \\ e can neither comprehend nor love 
our Heavenly Father as we are commanded to do, while we 
regard him in the light of a mere abstract Being, a formless, 
fashionless Heavenly Father. The human heart requires 
something visible and tangible, at least in conception, be- 
fore it can lavish all the love of a consecrated life upon 
either a real or ideal being. Hence the absolute necessity 
of regarding the Father and the Son in the light in which 
they are so clearly set before us in the Bible. For it is 
them that we are commanded to love and worship, rather 
than the Holy Spirit, that invisible, formless, fashionless 
Being known as the Holy Ghost, the Third Person in the 
Godhead. 

But why should we object so seriously to the idea of the 
Father's corporeal existence, when we are wont to glory in 
the fact that the Son was embodied in human form and car- 
ried his mangled body with him back to the glory land? 
The materiality of the Father no more destroys the spirit- 
uality of the Divine existence than did the incarnation of 
the Son. Both the moral and spiritual character of Deity 
was wonderfully manifested and satisfactorily maintained 
in the life-character of the Incarnate Son of God. 

The mere abstract revelations of God the Father are not 
comparable to the glorious gift of his Incarnate Son. They 
made no such deep and lasting impressions on the human 
heart. They called forth no such expressions of gratitude 
nor manifestations of love from the children of men. Xo, 
nor do the gifts and graces of God the Invisible Spirit, 
though ever abiding with us, awaken such deep and lasting 
emotions of homage and adoration in the souls of the saved 



44 THE FATHER NO ABSTRACT BEING. 

for the Father of Lights, as does the thirty-three years' so- 
journ upon earth of the visible Son of God. 

In fact, even abstract truths are comparatively powerless 
iipon humanity unless clothed in concrete form. Beauty, 
benevolence, and love scarcely have an existence to us until 
they breathe and burn upon the altars of our hearts through 
the forms of those who love us and are loved by us in re- 
turn. 

But we cannot conceive of the Father as a mere ab- 
stract Being, or simply as a Pure Spirit, without confound- 
ing him in our conceptions with the Holy Spirit, and thus 
destroying the Tripersonality of the Godhead, which is so 
plainly taught in the Bible. 

God the Father, the First Person in the Holy Trinity, is 
evidently a visible Being. I know that John says: J$o 
man hath seen God at any time. And this is true when ref- 
erence is had to the Eternal Essence, or the Divine ^Nature. 
But the reverse is equally true when the reference is to the 
finite forms of the Father and the Son, through whom God 
hath been declared or revealed unto man. Hence Jacob 
said: I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 
And the Divine Record says that Moses and Aaron, Nadab 
and Abihu, and seventy of the elders, all saw the God of 
Israel in visible form; for under his feet was paved work, 
as of sapphire stone; and upon the nobles of the children 
of Israel he laid not his hand. Isaiah said, long before the 
incarnation of Christ : I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, 
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Woe is 
me! for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. 
And the Lord said unto Moses: I will put thee in a clift of 



GOD THE SON. 45 

the rock, and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass 
by; and I will take away mine hand, and thou 8 halt see my 
back parts: but my face shall not be seen. Job confidently 
affirmed that with his eyes he should see God for himself. 
And the Psalmist said unto the Lord: As for me, J will be- 
hold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I 
awake, with thy likeness. And John the Kevelator closes 
up the Divine Record with his grand description of heaven, 
in which he says: The throne of God and of the Lamb shall 
be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see 
his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And 
there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, nei- 
ther light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: 
and they shall reign forever and ever. Certainly, then, 
God in the Person of the Father, as well as the Son, is a 
visible, Divine Being. 

God the Sox 
is the Second Person in the Godhead. He is to the Father 
what Joseph was to Pharaoh, or Daniel to Xebuchadnezzar, 
the Second Ruler in his universal empire. He is the Lieu- 
tenant Governor of the universe, the King of kings and 
Lord of lords. 

The Son of God is an Eternal Being. He always did 
and always will exist. He is coeternal with God the Fa- 
ther. In his spiritual essence he is uncreated, and in his 
Divine nature verily God. He is now, always was, and al- 
ways will be a Divine Being. This Second Person is the eter- 
nal Son of God the Father. Sonship, in a higher and holier 
sense than that which relates to his incarnate life, belongs 



46 MANIFEST IN THE FLESH. 

to him: for such are evidently the teachings of Revelation. 
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we 
might live through him. But we cannot hope to discover 
the unrevealed secrets of his eternal Sonship any more than 
we can solve the problem of the Divine existence. AVe only 
know that the doctrine of eternal generation, or Divine pro- 
cession, is not a revelation from God. 

God the Son was manifested in the flesh. His incarnation 
was not the origin of his Divine existence; it was simply 
the beginning of his human or dual existence. During* his 
incarnation he was a very God-man, is now, and doubtless 
always will be. He was not after his manifestation in the 
flesh both God and a man, two separate and distinct beings; 
but a God-man, as before but one in Personality and Being. 
His one Person was common to two distinct sets of attri- 
butes. There was a mysterious union of two natures in one 
Being. Divinity and humanity came together and coalesced 
in this God-man. His human nature consists in all the es- 
sentials to human existence, and his Divine nature con- 
sists in all the essentials to Divine existence. There is 
no contrariety between the essential elements and attri- 
butes of the two natures embodied in the Personage of 
the Incarnate Son. These natures blend together in perfect 
harmony in the one Mediator between God and man. And 
everything he did in the execution of his mediatorial work 
was due to the cooperating energies of both his humanity 
and Divinity. All his human and Divine attributes acted 
together as the common energies of one and the same Per- 
son. All the attributes of both natures were inherent in and 
exhibited by the same Being. 



A DIVINE BEING. 47 

The acts of the Incarnate God while on earth were neither 
wholly human nor wholly Divine. There seems to have been 
a blending of the two in all his words and works and ways 
while in the world. It is through this mysterious union of 
the two natures that the God-man in his atoning work 
touches both the Divine and human heart, and brings an 
offended God and offending man back together upon terms 
of reconciliation satisfactory to both parties. 

But we must state in this connection that the generic 
term humanity includes all the essentials to human nature, 
and all the beings which ever did or ever will possess them 
— the entire race of mankind. So with the term Divinity. 
AVhen used in its generic sense it embraces all the essentials 
to the Divine nature, and all Beings possessing the same, 
the Holy Trinity or the entire Godhead. But either of 
these terms, used in a relative sense, is necessarily limited in 
its significance. Hence we can speak in this sense both of 
the humanity and Divinity of the Second Person in the 
Adorable Trinity; while in a generic sense neither human- 
ity nor Divinity is to be found in any one person or being 
in existence. 

This Incarnate Son is a Divine Being. He possesses all 
the essentials to Deity. In him dwells not the Godhead it- 
self, as some suppose, but all the fullness of the Godhead. 
In this gift of his Son the Father gave to us in bodily hu- 
man form all the essential elements and attributes of the Di- 
vine nature. He kept back nothing. So the essential Di- 
vinity of Jesus Christ constantly breaks forth from the 
pages of Inspiration in a perfect blaze of effulgent glory. 

The Divinity of the Son is seen in the circumstances con- 



48 SEATED UPON THE THRONE. 

nected with his incarnation, the purity of his exalted char- 
acter, the import of his doctrines, his boundless benevolence 
and self-sacrificing spirit. It also shines out in all his heal- 
ings of the sick, raisings of the dead, walking on the waves 
of the troubled waters, his marvelous transfiguration, match- 
less death, triumphant resurrection, and glorious ascension. 
His miracles were but the outflow of his Divine nature, the 
credentials of his Divine Authority, and the symbols of his 
saving power. And beneath the bosom of the Eternal Son 
the loving heart of Divinity still beats and burns for sin- 
ning and suffering humanity. It is boundless, endless love, 
leaping out of the fountain of the Infinite and Eternal, to 
seek and to save the loved and lost of earth. 

He who denies the Divinity of the Son hurls his artillery 
against the eternal throne of God; for the Savior is seated 
there upon the right-hand of his loving Father, sharing with 
him the infinite honors and eternal glories of the inhabitants 
of heaven. Christ himself affirms that he was before father 
Abraham, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 
He was the Eternal Word which was made flesh and dwelt 
among us, and that Word was with God, and that Word was 
God. But no being can be said to be with himself. It was 
God the Son claiming to have been eternally with God the 
Father. 

This Incarnate Son w T as, of course, a human being. The 
Son of God was also the Son of man. The proofs of his hu- 
manity are found in the sad story of his humiliation. He 
looked like a man, he acted like a man, because he was a 
man among men. But no one denies or doubts his human- 
ity. The Incarnate Son, then, possessed both a Divine and a 



AT HOME WITH GOD. 49 

human nature. He was in the same Personage the Repre- 
sentative of Divinity and humanity. In his Person was ex- 
hibited in the most intimate union all the attributes of human 
perfection and all the infinite fullness of Divine glory. He 
is the Central Point of union between God and man. In 
him the extremes of the two natures meet and blend in per- 
fect harmony. By him sin and salvation meet, and earth 
and heaven are brought together. He taught, both by pre- 
cept and example, the whole duty of man; and revealed most 
forcibly the laws of God. Absolute perfection seems to 
have been the natural result of the Divine Incarnation. The 
Divine glory breaks in upon our vision at intervals along 
his entire history, to be seen in its full-orbed splendor at 
the close of his earthly career. His holy life was a mys- 
terious manifestation of the boundless love of God to the 
world. 

In his incarnation the Son was a human being at home 
with Divinity. He was a Divine Being away from home, be- 
cause away from heaven. As such a Compound Being he was 
born into this world. His birth has no precedent, and his exist- 
ence no analogy. He was a Being without an explanation. His 
unique Personage is the greatest wonder of the world. It was 
the Eternal Son with human nature embodied in his Personal 
Organism. This strange Personality did not center in the 
human, but in the Divine nature, and hence, like that na- 
ture, it is eternal. The incarnation was not the origin of a 
new being, but the clothing of a Divine Person with human 
nature. It was a Divine Being taking humanity into the 
most intimate personal unity with Divinity. 

The Personality of the Son of God is so completely cen- 



50 LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 

tered in the Divine nature that we cannot contemplate his 
humanity separate and apart from his Divinity. The Eter- 
nal Son did not simply join himself to a mortal man, but he 
took upon himself our finite, while retaining his own infinite 
nature. God being his Father, and the Virgin Mary his 
mother, he could not according to the general law of repro- 
duction have been other than both human and Divine. Thus 
he became a God-man, the rightful Redeemer of his race, 
and the all-sufficient Savior of the world. 

Since God was the Father of the Incarnate Son he could 
but have partaken of the Divine nature, for like begets like. 
And since he was also the Son of Mary, he was necessarily 
possessed of human nature, for like produces its like. A 
Being both human and Divine was the natural and necessa- 
ry result of such a combination in parentage. Nothing short 
of a God-man could reasonably have been expected in such 
an offspring. For Christ w r as the Offspring of, and not mere- 
ly an emanation from, God the Father. 

But it seems impossible that the Incarnate Son should 
have inherited at the same time the sinless nature of his 
Heavenly Father and the sinful nature of his Virgin mother, 
since this would have involved a contradiction; for no be- 
ing could at the same time be absolutely sinless like the 
Eternal Father and yet relatively sinful like the Virgin 
mother. How natural, then, that preference be given to the 
greater, and the world presented with a Sinless Savior! 
And yet sin must have been a possibility with the Incarnate 
Son, else it would have been useless to place him on trial as 
our Second Representative, for the whole thing would have 
been a mere farce, and he could have deserved no credit for 



A SUCCESSFUL MEDIATOR. 51 

his perfect obedience to the Divine law, whereby he con- 
demned while in the flesh the sin of the first Adam. 

The Bible nowhere intimates that there were two distinct 
spirits and wills in the Incarnate Son any more than it does 
a double spirit and will in all other men. And if Christ did 
possess two spirits and wills, the human were evidently lost 
to our gaze in their harmonious union with the Divine. At 
any rate, the two natures which he possessed were a unit in 
his earth life. AVe cannot fully comprehend this most mys- 
terious of all unions, and yet in the fullness of both na- 
tures we know he is an inexhaustible source of sympathy 
and support to all those who put their trust in him. 

The incarnate Son could not have represented humanity 
had he not been the Son of man, nor could he have repre- 
sented Divinity had he not been the Son of God. To be a 
successful Mediator between God and man, he must himself 
be a God-man. The finite and fallen never could have 
reached the Infinite and Eternal save through the gracious 
intervention of this mysterious God-man. 

The Incarnate Son has an essence and a Being peculiar 
to himself. In neither is he identical with any other person 
in existence. To claim that the Son is equal in essence and 
one in Being with the Father is simply to assert that an es- 
sence is equal to itself, and that a Being is himself. It is 
also assuming what the Bible does not teach and what no 
one can prove. The Father and the Son are separate and dis- 
tinct Beings, both in essence and in office, for there can be 
no separate and distinct personality without a correspond- 
ing separate and distinct being. Such a thing is not con- 
ceivable, much less possible. And while the essence in two 



52 HIS ETERNAL EXISTENCE. 

distinct beings may be and often is similar, it can never be 
the same identical essence. To make the Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit one in essence and Being is simply to destroy 
their separate identity and distinct Personality and give us 
oneness in the Godhead without either unity or triunity, 
while the Holy Bible most emphatically affirms that there are 
three and that these three are one — that there is a Unity in 
the Triunity of the Godhead. 

The incarnation of the Eternal Son does not imply the in- 
carnation of the entire Godhead. It was only the Second 
Person in the Holy Trinity who was made flesh and dwelt 
among us. The Godhead was never embodied in the Per- 
son of the Son. The fullness of the Godhead with which 
Christ was filled, or the fullness of the Divine nature, pos- 
sessed by each Person in the Godhead, is one thing, while 
the Godhead itself is an entirely different thing. So the 
fact that Christ was filled with all the fullness of the Divine 
nature found in the Godhead does not prove that the God- 
head itself was incarnated or embodied in the Person of the 
Incarnate Son of God. The Godhead might be represented 
by, but it could not be embodied in the Person of the only- 
begotten Son, 

But the greatest difficulty is to reconcile the incarnation 
of the Son with his Eternal Existence — his birth with his 
Uncreated Being. We can do this, it seems, only by admit- 
ting that his soul was not brought into existence like his in- 
carnate body by a process of generation, but was preexist- 
ent and eternal. A spiritual body previously occupied by 
that soul could easily have been laid aside during the period 
of his incarnation, or his original body could have been 



THE THIRD PERSON. 53 

changed to the body of flesh occupied by that soul during 
his thirty-three years' sojourn here on earth. A spiritual 
body could be humanized as certainly as a human body can 
be spiritualized; or this original body, if laid aside for the 
time being, could have been embodied in the earthy at its 
transition from the natural to the spiritual, from the mortal to 
the immortal, when the earthy put on the image of the heav- 
enly and became the first fruits of the resurrection from the 
dead. But we are forced to confess that there are depths 
here that we cannot fathom, mysteries for which we have no 
solution. The Incarnation — God the Son manifest in the 
flesh — takes us out of the philosophical regions of the natu- 
ral into the mysterious realms of the supernatural and eter- 
nal, where we must walk by faith rather than by sight; and 
so we walk. 

God the Holy Spieit 

is the Third Person in the Godhead. He is the Father's 
Spirit, and the Spirit of the Son. He is the General 
Agent of the Holy Trinity. He is the Field Agent of 
the Godhead. He was present in Creation to do the bidding 
of the Father. He is the ever-present and Efficient Agent, 
carrying on the work of the great Remedial System since 
the ascension of the Son. 

The Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son, has many 
names by which he is known in the Bible. He is called the 
Spirit, the Good Spirit, the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of 
Truth, the Spirit of Glory, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of 
God, and the Eternal Spirit, with many other appropriate 
appellations. 

The Holy Spirit is infinitely more than a mere operation, 



54 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

energy, or attribute of God. He is an Infinite Being, pos- 
sessing every essential to Deity. And immensity is filled 
with his universal presence. This Holy Spirit, instinct with 
latent energy, is present in every nook and corner of the 
boundless, bottomless, topless void of infinite space. He is 
everywhere present at the same time, while the Father and 
the Son are confined to one place at a time, and are omni- 
present only as represented in the Person of God the Holy 
Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is not an everlasting procession of the 
Divine from the Divine, an ever-streaming radiance, an ever- 
beaming glory, flowing forth like light from the radiant 
stars of night, or rays from the glorious orb of clay; but an 
invisible, eternal, Omnipresent Person, possessing all the 
elements and attributes essential to the Divine nature. He 
is evidently a Divine Person, because he performs many 
personal acts, some of which are beyond the power of a mere 
human being. He loves, reproves, reveals, teaches, quick- 
ens, guides, comforts, searches, and sanctifies. He restores 
to the seeking soul the Divine likeness, lost in the fall. He 
is the medium of communication between Christ and the 
Christian. He is the invisible bond of union between the 
Father and his children. 

To regard the Holy Spirit as a mere abstract attribute, 
quality, energy, or influence of Deity is to disregard the 
plainest teachings of the Scriptures to the contrary; for 
the appellations, honors, words, and works ascribed to him 
prove beyond the shadow of a doubt his distinct Personal- 
ity, and consequently his separate and eternal Being. He 
is not an eternal generation from the Father, as thought is 



GOD IS A SPIRIT. 55 

from the mind, or light from the sun; but he is as truly a 
Divine Being as either the Father or the Son. Infinite love, 
wisdom, and power are the primal attributes of this Blessed 
Spirit. And out of these grow all other attributes essen- 
tial to the Divine Existence, such as gentleness, kindness, 
forbearance, long-suffering, goodness, and mercy. Each of 
these attributes moves in an orbit of its own, where it may 
be viewed in all the plenitude and perfection of its original 
glory as we contemplate the character and conduct of the 
Third Person in the Holy Trinity. And the excellences of 
the Divine nature and the perfection of the Divine charac- 
ter constitute the glory which this Holy Spirit would dif- 
fuse eternally among the children of men, remolding them 
into the image and after the likeness of the Triune God. 

The Holy Spirit is God, not in a generic but in a rela- 
tive sense, just as much so as either the Father or the Son. 
God is a Spirit. If so, the reverse must be equally true. 
The Spirit is God. God is a Spirit in the Person of the 
Holy Ghost. Peter says that Ananias, in lying to the Holy 
Ghost, lied unto God. This Third Person in the Adorable 
Trinity is a Pure Spirit, invisible and eternal. He possess- 
es no visible body. He never even assumed temporarily a 
tangible, visible form, so far as we know, save at the bap- 
tism of the Son, when he appeared in the shape or likeness 
of a dove. 

The Holy Spirit is in this world to do work for the Fa- 
ther and the Son. Rays of light never represent themselves, 
but the stars and suns from which they emanate. So the 
Holy Spirit never points to himself, but to the Father and 
the Son who sent him to reprove the world of sin, of right- 



56 THE GODHEAD. 

eousness, and a judgment to come. All sinners have the 
enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit to contend with. 
He is an inexhaustible source of light and life to all who 
receive him. He convicts of sin, and then regenerates 
the soul. Every Christian grace is the fruit of the Spirit. 
He inspired the writers of the Holy Scriptures. He anoint- 
ed Christ above his fellows. And this Holy Spirit bears di- 
rect witness with our spirits that we are the children of God 
and heirs of glory. 

The Holy Spirit is an entity. He is a Being with more 
than a mere imaginary existence. He is a Divine Reality. 
Though invisible, like the atmosphere and ether by which 
we are surrounded and with which we are filled, yet, like 
them, he doubtless has a material existence. The Holy Spirit 
is immanent in all things. He is the vital power of the uni- 
verse, the essential and fundamental environment and life- 
condition of all men; for in him we live and move and have 
our being in the world. He is the central and controlling 
Spirit in existence. He underlies all things, whether ani- 
mate or inanimate. The whole Creation rests upon his 
boundless bosom. All the energy-producing effects in the 
physical realm are but the Divine efficiency of the Spirit of 
God in nature. 

The Godhead 

consists in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These Three 
Persons have existed from all eternity as so many self-con- 
scious Beings. Every essential to Divinity is possessed by 
each of them, and that, too, in the highest possible degree 
of perfection. The Divine knowledge of each is infinite, 
extending alike throughout the dominions of heaven, 



A TRINITY IN UNITY. 57 

earth, and hell. The fountain of all life is found in them, 
whether it be vegetable, animal, or spiritual. All life had 
its origin in the Triune God, and there are infinite depths 
of communion in the time, existence, and harmonious union 
in the Godhead which the finite mind will never fathom. 

In creation and providence all movement, according to 
the Scriptures, is from the Father, through the Son, and by 
the Holy Spirit; And in the sinner's return to God, it is 
always to the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy 
Spirit. Therefore the Three Persons in the Godhead must 
have separate and distinct understandings and wills. Jesus 
said: I seek not mine own will, but the will of him who 
sent me. But they are a unit in all their purposes and 
harmonious in all their volitions. 

The Bible clearly sets forth the Godhead as a Trinity in 
Unity. And we much prefer a Trinitarian Unity to a Uni- 
tarian Oneness. We repeat it, in the Triunity of the God- 
head there are three Divine Persons or Beings, constitu- 
ting in their essentials to Deity the one only true and liv- 
ing God. Xow unto the King eternal [the Father], im- 
mortal [the Son], invisible [the Holy Spirit], the only true 
God, be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen. 





CHAPTEK IY. 

THE CREATION OF MAN. 

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ( Gen. i. 26. ) 

OD is the Creator of all things, the Maker of 
all men, the Author of all existence. There 
was a period when nothing but Deity existed. 
This was prior to the " beginning " of God's 
creative work. It was far back in the annals of past eter- 
nity. During this dateless period not a solitary star illumi- 
nated the boundless, pathless fields of infinite space. There 
was no heaven above and no earth beneath, no sun, nor 
moon, nor planets to break the eternal silence which reigned 
supreme everywhere. The Eternal Three, as so many Pure 
Spirits, lived and loved alone, in the absence of all created 
mind and matter during that eternity which antedates the 
first creative act of God. 

The material universe is not eternal ; nor did it bring itself 
into existence; neither is it a child of chance — the shadow 
of atheism — but the creation of God. In the plenipotency 
of his omnipotent power all things were created. He laid 
the foundations of the universe, deep and wide, upon the 
ruins of Night's shattered throne, and threw the solar sys- 
tems in the heavens as shining lights to commence the run 
of their endless circuits. Fiery suns, in their blazing splen- 
dor and dazzling magnificence, were spoken into existence 

by a word, and took their places as the centers of these so- 

(58) 




ADAM AND EVE. 



"And they were both naked, the man 
and his wife, and were not a-shamed." 
(Gen. ii. 25.) 



IN THE BEGINNING. <il 

lar systems, which they baptized with the brilliancy of their 
effulgent glories. Yes, the "beginning" dawned at length. 
The eternal fiat went forth, and immediately in all their 
pristine glory, stars, suns, worlds, and systems of worlds 
flashed into being, below, above, and all around him; for 
God had created the material universe, including the heaven 
and the earth. 

Creation consists in the bringing of something into being 
or existence out of nothing. It is the production of an en- 
tity out of a nonentity. Creation proper once completed, 
God hung the whole universe, instinct with motion and 
magnificently balanced, in hopeful harmony, with propless 
equipoise, out in the limitless fields of infinite space, where 
each orb sought its appropriate orbit, and entered at once 
upon the long race of its endless circuit. 

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 
This is a word by way of preface to the Holy Bible. It is 
simply a concise introduction to the great volume of Reve- 
lation. This first verse is in itself most evidently a sepa- 
rate and distinct paragraph, pointing to the first great event 
which marks the annals of eternity. It is virtually the an- 
nouncement of the creation of the universe ages anterior to 
the organic formation of nature's kingdoms, or the fitting up 
of this world as the abode of our race. 

Prior to the first creative act of God there were no mate- 
rial nor spiritual entities in existence save the Divine; 
and, beyond the glory which enveloped Deity, uncreated 
night shrouded universal emptiness in deepest darkness. At 
this period God called forth the substance of all worlds from 
the silent and tenantless chambers of nonentity into a real 



62 MOSES WAS A SCHOLAR. 

and indestructible existence. It was then that the harmonies 
and melodies of the music made by the spheres first greeted 
the ears of the great Creator of the universe, which is the 
offspring of his omnific word. 

Moses was a scholar and a statesman, as well as a histo- 
rian; but he did not attempt to point out the exact epoch 
of the original creation of the universe. He simply affirmed 
that the heaven and the earth with which he had to do dated 
their origin from the beginning of creation. And the Psalm- 
ist corroborates this statement when he says: Of old hast 
thou laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are 
the work of thy hands. But the Bible does not propose to 
give a history of the whole universe of God. It confines 
itself principally to that part of creation in which man is 
more directly interested. Hence, aside from the first decla- 
ration, the Mosaic account of creation is limited to the fit- 
ting up of our own solar system; other systems having been 
fitted up for the habitation of God's creatures at different 
periods in the unrevealed history of the universe. 

A succinct statement regarding the origin of all things 
was necessary to a satisfactory Revelation of the Divine 
"Will. But the time of the original creation was a superfluity, 
not essential to the salvation of a single soul, and hence very 
consistently omitted. The fact of this creation is a Bible 
truth, but the date of its occurrence is a matter of scientific 
research. The Bible was not designed to anticipate the dis- 
coveries of geology or any other science. If so, it doubtless 
would have fiixed the sun as the center of our solar system, 
given the earth its diurnal rotations and annual revolutions, 
and thus have disabused the minds of the multitudes of the 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 63 

false idea that the sun revolved around the earth three hun- 
dred and sixty-five times every year. But to have made 
such revelations would simply have caused the world to re- 
ject the Bible as it did this scientific truth when first taught 
by Galileo. Hence the Bible nowhere directly contradicts 
the popular scientific ideas of the ages in which it made its 
advent into the world, though in perfect harmony and fully 
abreast with all the future discoveries of every true science 
the world has ever known. 

There is a striking agreement between scientific research 
and Divine Revelation on the subject of creation. They 
both give us first the elements of the universe out of nothing; 
then the abyss formless and void; and afterwards the Spir- 
it of God in his operations upon chaos molding into harmo- 
nious shape and shadings the vast universe of God. Science 
and Revelation are in perfect harmony. They are two grand 
corroborative volumes, every line of which bears the impress 
of their Divine Author. True science always corroborates 
the testimony of Revelation, and often demonstrates to the 
eye some of its most sublime and soul-inspiring truths. And 
revealed truth always falls harmoniously within the realm of 
natural facts, so that there can be no jar nor schism between 
the declarations of nature and the announcements of Revela- 
tion when each is correctly interpreted. 

We cannot account for many facts seen upon the surface 
and hidden in the bowels of the earth upon any other suppo- 
sition than that the earth existed in some form Ions: a<>*es an- 
terior to the origin of our race. The Bible does not contra- 
dict, but corroborates, this scientific statement. The Bible 
and the earth have a common Author. The inscriptions on 



64 CREATING AND MAKING. 

the rocks of one and the sacred records of the other were 
evidently traced by the same unerring hand, and hence can- 
not contradict each other. The Creator threw this world 
out into space in a crude, rough state, in the beginning of 
his creative work, and, after the lapse of ages, though he may 
have fitted it up for similar purposes before he found it form- 
less and void, when six thousand years ago in six days' work 
he fitted it up for the habitation of our race. The vast for- 
mations, of the earth, then, simply antedate the creative days 
spoken of by Moses. 

But there is a vast difference between creating and mak- 
ing a thing. The immediate creation brings something into 
existence out of nothing by the omnific word of God. The 
mediate creation, or making, gives us new things out of old 
ones — new 7 forms, new entities, new creatures out of original 
material. The word properly translated " created " occurs 
but three times in this entire narrative. The first is in ref- 
erence to the original creation of the heaven and the earth; 
the second is in reference to the introduction of animal life; 
and the third is in connection w T ith the production of the 
human soul, or spiritual life. 

This creation, then, of which Moses gives a detailed ac- 
count w^as, in the main, mediate rather than immediate — a 
making rather than a creation proper. It marks the birth 
of time, the offspring of eternity. And so far as the earth 
itself is concerned, this creation was but a fitting up — a 
calling out of a dark, chaotic state into one of harmony, light, 
and beauty, with its running rills, rolling rivers, roaring 
cataracts, sweeping landscapes, and lofty mountains. 

The first verse in the Bible, then, does not connect the 



z H 

c td 

0! I— I 

~ 

^ 



w w 




LET THERE BE LIGHT. 67 

immediate creation of the earth directly with the origin of 
our race, and fix the date at six thousand years ago. Nor 
does it necessitate the absurd supposition that the six crea- 
tive days mentioned by Moses were so many long periods of 
time. They were simply natural days of twenty-four hours' 
duration each, with an evening and a morning, to mark the 
flight of time. 

Darkness covered the face of the deep over which the Di- 
vine Spirit brooded, when God said, Let there be light; and 
light threw her gauzy mantles of azure blue over the retreat- 
ing darkness of ebon night, and the first day dawned upon 
the world with a crimson blush of light upon its brow. Cha- 
otic darkness fled away on the swift wings of retreating night 
before the radiance of heaven, and the early dawn passed 
rapidly into the glories of a cloudless day. And so dawned 
the second, third, and fourth days, when God placed the two 
great lights in the heavens, the one to rule the day and the 
other the night; and frescoed the firmament with burning 
stars and revolving planets. The radiant morn, the golden 
noon, and the silvery eve were the fourth day. And when 
night came on the blue vaulted dome of heaven shone for the 
first time in the resplendent beauties of appendant stars, ra- 
diant planets, and a silver moon. So from earth's dark chaos 
came forth a new creation of order, beauty, and glory, un- 
surpassed in its magnificent grandeur save by the glories of 
the heavenly world. 

The fifth day brought forth the fish of the sea and the fowl 
of the air, to fill the waters and fly in the firmament of heav- 
en. But creation wanted its climax. It was still lacking in 
its masterpiece of Divine Mechanism. Man had not yet been 



68 A SUPERINTENDING PROVIDENCE. 

made. So a formal convocation of the Holy Trinity was 
called by God the Father, who suggested to the Eternal Son 
and Holy Spirit that they make man in their own image and 
after their own likeness, to winch they were all agreed. So 
they made man accordingly, gave him a helpmeet, and placed 
him at the head of all earth's animate creation. God looked 
upon everything that he had made, and pronounced it all 
very good. This ended the sixth creative day, and the Lord 
finished "his work and rested on the seventh day from all his 
labors. 

That this creation called forth a superior power and a Su- 
perintending Providence are facts well known, and ought to 
be frankly acknowledged by all rational creatures. The per- 
petuity and immutability of the laws governing the whole 
universe afford the most conclusive proof of a Superior 
Agency wiiich designed and controls all the phenomena in 
nature. Divine Providence is neither fate nor force, but the 
governing and preserving of his creation by the Creator. 
This creation reveals natural laws which are fixed and cer- 
tain. All material forces and natural laws are parts of the 
same great system, working harmoniously together in order to 
the consummation of one common end, the establishment be- 
yond a doubt of the unity of their causation, which is God. 
For God controls all natural forces, and regulates all the 
physical laws of the universe, notwithstanding they are 
eternal. 

But Divine Providence is both natural and supernatural, 
general and special, public and personal. There is not to be 
found in nature an adequate cause for some changes which 
are known to have taken place in the material universe. 



AN INFINITE ARCHITECT. 69 

Hence there must be at work somewhere a power which is 
superior to nature and its laws, for all the events and ac- 
tions of the universe move along the line apparently pointed 
out by an Intelligent Designer. 

The agency of an Infinite Architect is apparent in all the 
manifestations of Divine wisdom, to be seen in the fitting 
up of this world for man's abode. The most important 
earthly deposits are located in places and forms best adapted 
to subserve the great economic ends of human society. 
There is a vast difference between the primitive and present 
condition of the earth. These facts clearly indicate the in- 
telligent forecast of the creative mind; for whether the 
changes which transformed the primitive into the present 
world were the result of ages or moments does not affect the 
fact that God, either directly or indirectly, through physical 
laws, did fit up this once chaotic world as a suitable abode 
for the Adamic race. 

But we say man was made in the Divine image and after 
the Divine likeness. He was made a compound being. He 
was composed of body and soul. His body was made of the 
dust of the earth. It was material, visible, and tangible. Xow 
an image is a material, visible, tangible object; such are the 
images or household gods of the heathen. So the image 
feature in man's creation must of necessity have referred to 
his body — the material, visible, tangible part of his being. 
Man's soul seems to have been a direct creation. It was the 
offspring of the Divine Breathing. If material in its essence, 
it was neither visible nor tangible. Well, a likeness is a 
picture, portrait, or resemblance of a person or object such 
as we see when Ave look in the mirror, on the canvas, or upon 



70 IMAGE AND LIKENESS. 

the surface of the crystal waters. It is not ordinarily a ver- 
itable substance, but a kind of shadow; visible, it is true, 
but not tangible, even though it may be material. Hence 
the likeness feature in man's creation must inevitably have 
referred to his soul — the invisible, immortal, spiritual part of 
his being. 

Now we cannot confound these two words, "image " and 
" likeness," for they are not synonymous in this connection. 
They do not mean the same thing here.- They cannot refer to 
the same fact in this scripture; for if they did, God would be 
guilty of tautology — a repetition of the same thing, some- 
thing not allowable even in man. But the prepositions " in " 
and " after " prove most conclusively that the words " image " 
and " likeness " have different meanings, and refer to two 
different parts of the compound being whose creation was 
proposed in this significant language — namely, his body and 
his soul. But, again, the order in which these two words ap- 
pear corresponds exactly with the mode of man's creation. 
For man's body was first made "in the image," and then 
his soul was created "after the likeness" of his Maker — the 
Triune God. These analogies are so many arguments, wit- 
nessing to the twofold harmony which existed at his origin 
between the creature, man, and his Creator, God. Made in 
the image of God, and after the Divine likeness, all the nor- 
mal powers of man, body and soul, were in perfect accord 
with each other, and his whole being in blissful harmony with 
the Holy Trinity, 

Man was wonderfully made. Physically and spiritually the 
creature was but a miniature copy of his Creator. His body 
was the perfection of Divine mechanism. Its organism is 



MAN MYSTERIOUSLY MADE. 71 

perfect and complete in all its parts. Every member an- 
swers most admirably the purpose of its creation. Begin- 
ning with the eyes, the organs of sight, we find them in their 
location, structure, and functions well calculated to admin- 
ister to our comfort and convenience, while the blue skies 
above our heads and the green foliage beneath our feet are 
admirably adapted to these sensitive organs of sight. So 
with our ears, the organs of hearing; they are happily loca- 
ted and ingeniously constructed to glean from the field of 
sweet sounds which salute them music to happify the soul 
and harmonize our entire being. In fact the organs of 
all five of our senses are so admirably adapted to our cir- 
cumstances and surroundings that we cannot but attribute 
their construction and arrangement to the infinite beneficence 
of our Creator. Every member was created for a purpose. 
Function is the essential attribute of the body. It is that 
for which the body exists. Its function underlies its form 
and substance, and is fundamental, while its form is merely 
incidental. The form of the human body is symmetrical and 
beautiful, but its functions constitute its chief glory. 

Man was mysteriously made. In body and soul he was 
but the counterpart of his Maker — the masterpiece of the 
Divine workmanship. His soul is the pearl of greatest price. 
It has an organic form, but is not visible to the natural eye. 
This form corresponds exactly with the physical body. Its 
admitted existence as an entity implies organic form, though 
that form be purely spiritual; for a formless entity is a con- 
tradiction of terms. An entity may be visible or invisible, 
as its essence or substance chances to be gross or refined in 
its material make-up. But a formless, immaterial entity is 



72 HEAD AND HEART. 

simply a gross absurdity. There are no such entities in ex- 
istence. The soul pervades the entire physical form in which 
it dwells, and is sensible to the slightest touch of any part 
of the body. It even experiences natural sensations in the 
absence of missing members of the body. And it not only 
guards all parts of the body against approaching danger, but 
it also administers to their constant necessities. 

The soul is evidently spiritual in its essence, while the 
body is' natural in its material existence. The soul, then, 
though intimately connected with the body, possesses a sep- 
arate and distinct substance of its own, which substance, 
though invisible to the natural eye, is a spiritual entity, 
readily seen by the spiritual eye. The soul also has laws 
peculiar to its own essence and action, by which it is gov- 
erned, even in this life; and when it leaves the body in 
death it is in the form of a spiritual essence accompanied by 
all the faculties and functions of a disembodied soul on its 
return to God, who gave it to man. 

The soul has its head and its heart. It has its seat of in- 
telligence and its seat of affection. Its faculties are all either 
intellectual or emotional. They are either of the head or 
of the heart. These two general faculties of the soul are 
brought into active exercise in everything we do or 
say. From the intellectual faculties come thought, reason, 
analysis, and judgment. These constitute the understand- 
ing. Through the emotional faculties we feel, desire, pur- 
pose, and love. These belong to the will. But the will and 
the understanding are very intimately connected with each 
other. Thought is either the offspring of affection or desire. 
We think often as we wish. Our thoughts are the counter- 



THE SOUL IMMORTAL. 73 

part of our affections, and our love is frequently the re- 
sult of our thoughts. These intellectual and emotional fac- 
ulties were given to the soul at its creation. 

The soul is also immortal. It is destined to an endless 
existence. The finite does not satisfy the soul of man. It 
reaches out after the infinite and eternal. The wisdom man- 
ifested in man's creation can be seen only in the light of his 
immortality. His hope of a future existence is in harmony 
with the wisdom displayed in his creation. Man with his 
wonderful endowments of soul cannot be here to-day to sink 
into nonentity to-morrow. It is not possible that the human 
soul, in possession of all its superior powers, will quit this 
life to be hushed in eternal silence. 

The soul is the seat of man's individuality. It is that 
which he calls himself. And it is the home of all his emo- 
tions, affections, and spiritual experiences while in or out of 
the body. The spirit is the principal part of the soul, just as 
the soul is the principal part of the man. It includes all the 
intellectual faculties. There are no limits to the capacity of 
the soul for spiritual development. Its ultimate enjoyment 
is boundless. Every new accession of spiritual life will wi- 
den its borders and deepen its depths of love for both God 
and man. Its capacity will continue to enlarge and its en- 
joyment to increase, as it goes on from glory to glory forev- 
er; and the larger its capacity becomes the larger the 
measures of life and love which it will be able to receive and 
impart as it marches on in its development toward the In- 
finite and Eternal. 

Man was miraculously made. His creation was manifest- 
ly a miracle. His body and soul were mysteriously united in 



74 THE DIVINE PATTERN. 

one being. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life, and man became a living soul. Animal and spiritual 
life animated the same being. But the life of the body was 
dependent upon the soul, for the body is the passive while 
the soul is the active essence in man's existence. One is the 
vitalized part while the other is the vitalizing power of man's 
being. Man is the noblest creature belonging to this world. 
He is a combination of the physical and spiritual. Hence 
he is both corporeal and incorporeal, visible and invisible, 
mortal and immortal. Xo matter whether reference is had 
to the physical or spiritual man, we are greeted on every 
hand with evidences the most striking of the truthfulness 
of this inspired declaration: Man is fearfully and wonder- 
fully made. 

Man in his original state was in perfect harmony with 
himself and his Maker. There were no conflicts whatever 
between the physical and the spiritual interests of his being. 
Hence he w T as holy and happy. He was the recognized son 
of God; and, since like follows like, we could expect noth- 
ing else than that the offspring should resemble the Ances- 
tor, both in his physical and his spiritual being. And so 
man was simply cut out by the Divine Pattern, and made in 
the image and after the likeness of his Maker. 

But since the original creation of man neither the body 
nor the soul is a direct gift of God. They are both the re- 
sult of ordinary generation. Our souls, like our bodies, 
come by natural descent from Adam. As sure as like be- 
gets like, so surely will man, as a compound being, find in 
his offspring the same constituent parts — a body and a soul. 
Adam begat a son, we are told, in his own likeness and after 



ADAM AND EVE MARRIED. 75 

his own image, and called his name Seth. Now, evidently, 
the likeness referred to the spiritual and the image to the 
physical man; for the procreation or reproduction of human 
beings would not be complete if it did not embrace the 
soul as well as the body. 

Adam, at the moment of his creation, was a full-grown 
man, of marriageable age, without a yesterday or a youth; 
fatherless and motherless, wifeless and childless; alone in 
the world, without a history or an inheritance; and yet not 
alone, for God was with him. But God said: It is not good 
that man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for 
him to perfect his being. So the new-made man was rocked 
soundly to sleep in the arms of his Maker; and a restless rib 
was extracted from the side nearest his beating heart, out of 
which a beautiful woman was made and given him for a wife. 
Adam and Eve were married. God officiated. The ceremony 
was appropriate and beautiful. The groom was a model, man- 
ly man., fresh from his Maker's plastic hand. The bride was 
fair indeed to look upon. She was the queen of beauty and 
the very picture of health and happiness, rejoicing in the 
fullness of her first love. The attendants were the listening 
aiiffels. The congratulations were all from the heart. The 
presents were numerous and valuable, for their future home 
was to be the Garden of Eden — the Paradise of (rod — with 
all its immunities and blessings. Matrimony is a monu- 
ment of the golden age of innocency. 

God then pronounced his benediction upon the happy 
pair, commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, and replen- 
ish the earth; to subdue and exercise dominion over every 
living creature in the world. He then referred to the pres- 



76 PREADAMITES. 

ents he had given them; and, with a few parting words, by 
way of encouragement and command, he bade the handsome 
groom and blushing bride an affectionate farewell for a time, 
promising to visit them often, and commune with them fre- 
quently in their Paraclistical home. 

Adam now turned to his lovely bride — for she was lovely — 
and said what no other man can say of his wife: She is bone 
of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He then spoke of the sa- 
credness of the marriage relation into which they had so 
recentl} 7 entered; and affirmed of man and w T ife that they 
should be one flesh, in their offspring of course. And they 
started out on foot on their bridal tour through the lovely 
garden which the Lord had given them, to view their pos- 
sessions and spend their honeymoon amid the fragrance and 
beauty of an earthly Eden. 

But science tells us that people lived on this earth prior to 
the origin of our race. We willingly admit the existence of 
Preadamites, for the Bible nowhere contradicts this scien- 
tific discovery, but forces us to infer the same when God 
commands the first pair to multiply and replenish the earth, 
with human beings of course. He certainly meant that they 
should repeople or fill it again with rational creatures, such 
as they were themselves; for the word " replenish " cannot 
mean anything short of that. This earth may have passed 
through many revolutionary epochs, and been inhabited sev- 
eral times prior to its fitting up for Adam and his posterity, 
so far the Bible is concerned, for it affirms nothing to the 
contrary whatever. 

God also made the holy angels. They too are the work- 
manship of his hands. They are numbered among his intel- 




£] CO 

1=3 > 

a x 
x 



THE HOLY ANGELS. 79 

ligent creatures. They are a higher order of intelligences, 
inhabiting the glory world. As their name indicates, they 
are the messengers of God. They have often been sent to 
this world on errands of love and with messages of mercy 
to fallen man. They are ministering spirits of light, sent 
forth to minister to the saints of the Lord, who are heirs of 
eternal life. Under the old dispensation they often admin- 
istered to God's servants in body, as they now administer to 
us in spirit. They delivered righteous Lot from the dread- 
ful doom of the wicked Sodomites. They locked the jaws of 
the ferocious lions when a praying Daniel was let down into 
their dismal den. They opened the prison doors for Peter 
in Jerusalem. They unlocked the iron gates for Paul and 
Barnabas at Philippi. They instructed many of the ancient 
seers in the ways of God; they shielded the Savior in the 
temptations of the wilderness, strengthened him in the bloody 
agonies of Gethsemane, liberated him in the hour of the res- 
urrection, and finally escorted him home to glory on the day 
of his ascension. 

These angels are spiritual beings. They are not merely 
pure spirits. They possess spiritual bodies also. They have 
a visible existence. Their bodies are not composed, like 
ours are now, of a physical substance. They are of a spirit- 
ual substance, similar to Avhat our bodies will be wdien these 
natural or physical bodies are raised spiritual bodies. For, 
as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly. The material substance of which 
bodies are composed may be either natural or spiritual, cor- 
ruptible or incorruptible, mortal or immortal. It is a mis- 
taken idea that all material substance is physical or natural 



80 VAST IN NUMBERS. 

in its character, for much of it is spiritual, and some of it 
even invisible to the natural eye. 

These angels are perfectly happy, because they are in per- 
fect harmony with their heavenly environments. They are all 
in possession of their original angelic perfection. They are 
perfect in their sphere. Hence with them there are no pangs 
for the past, no penitence for the present, and no fears for the 
future. They are holy beings, drinking in eternal joys un- 
ceasingly from the free and flowing fountains of endless 
light, life, and love. And they not only minister tothe spir- 
itual wants of the saints in this life, watching over and pre- 
serving them from evil while in this world, but they also 
convey their souls at death back to God, who gave them; and 
doubtless become their, companions and teachers in the glory 
world. 

These exalted creatures are among the noblest and the 
best of all the wonderful works of the great Creator. They 
are immortal beings, confirmed in a state of holiness. They 
far excel men in knowledge, and are mighty in power. We 
have many instances of angelic agency, in the execution of 
the Divine will in this world. One of the most striking was 
the destruction of the hosts of Sennacherib by an angel en- 
dued with great power, because they had defied the God 
of Israel. 

These angels are vast in numbers. They were created 
long before Adam and Eve had an existence on the earth. 
They are beings of great activity and wonderful endurance. 
They transmit themselves at will with astonishing velocity 
from world to world. And they are possessed of a vast 
amount of wisdom. They have long witnessed the won- 






►> 73 O O 




£ fl "^ ^ 




•^ d • - . 




+J 01 «-t 












TO — <P . 




"<3 o> F* si 


in 


ang 
to h 
dark 
(2 Pi 


i— j 


ed not the 

lem down 

chains of 

dgment," 




<! 


£ 


a^ .S o 


W 


J 
J 


TO to +j 

sl|8 


< 


•■w ^2 ^3 > 




(D *-• 








C <D © 




'to -a .a 



FOUR DISTINCT CLASSES. 83 

ders of the Divine administration. They have often winged 
their unwearied flights across the broad domains of heaven 
and sped to the distant worlds around as ambassadors of 
light and love. They ever look into the face of God the 
Father, and behold incessantly in the effulgence of heavenly 
light the glories of God the Son. For long ages they have 
been gazing with raptures of delight upon the ever-unfolding 
attributes of Deity. They certainly have attained to very 
lofty heights in wisdom concerning the w T ays and wonders 
of God. 

These angels of light and love are revealed to us as em- 
bracing four distinct classes — namely, angels, archangels, 
cherubim, and seraphim. They differ in rank and order 
from the ordinary angel to the most exalted seraph which 
vies around God's eternal throne. These seraphim are doubt- 
less the highest order of all the heavenly hosts which honor 
God continually with their loud hozannahs and sweet hallelu- 
iahs of endless praise. They are the " burning ones " who 
stand as a wall of fire nearest the eternal throne, undazzled by 
the effulgence of the Divine glory. It is said that these ser- 
aphim love most, and that this entitles them to the highest 
rank in the hierarchy of heaven. They each have six 
wings; with two of which they fly, or stand motionless in mid- 
air, around the glorious throne; with two cover their faces; 
and with two hide their feet, as they vie in heartfelt rever- 
ence and deepest devotion before the Lord of hosts, the Eter- 
nal God. 

The fallen angels are also creatures of the Divine hand. 
They too were once beings of light and love. They were 
on trial along with the holy angels, and fell while their fel- 



84 THE FALLEN ANGELS. 

lows stood the test, and were confirmed in their holy, happy 
state. The only w T ay that God could have rendered the fall 
of these angels impossible would have been not to have created 
them free and accountable beings and put them on trial in 
order to test their fidelity to their Creator. 

These fallen angels left their holy habitations in open re- 
bellion against God. They were cast down to an endless 
hell prepared for them, where they will remain reserved in 
chains "of darkness until the judgment of the great day. 
They sinned in the broad sunlight of heaven. Unlike our 
first parents, they fell while there was no foreign tempter to 
seduce them, and, perchance, no evil in the universe of God. 
They fell each one for himself, and they fell far beyond tlie 
reach of hope and mercy. These fallen angels were changed 
at once from spirits of light to demons of darkness. They 
are not simply evil spirits. They also possess visible organ- 
isms. They are real, tangible beings. They are entities in 
visible bodily forms. However, like the Holy angels, they 
are not confined, in their operations, to the body. 

The Chief of these fallen angels — doubtless one of the sera- 
phim — led the revolt, and was designated as the devil or Satan. 
Yes, the devil w r as once an angel of light; but he abode not 
in the truth, and, rebelling against God, he was banished 
from heaven to hell, a place prepared in outer darkness for 
him and the fallen angels who followed him in his wicked 
warfare against the Prince of Peace. 

The magnitude of creation's works is immense, beyond 
our conception. Its system of worlds upon worlds is the 
wonder of the ages. Its suns and systems go singing on 
around their respective circuits through all eternity, while if 




SATAN. 



"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven/' (Luke x. 18.) 



PEOPLED GLOBES. 



87 



one orb were to refuse to repeat its appointed circuit, the 
entire universe would lose its equilibrium, and anarchy, cross- 
ing the paths of anarchy, would soon strew the fields of space 
with universal wreck and ruin. But He who created also 
preserves. Each globe was formed for some grand purpose; 
and many of them are doubtless peopled with intelligent 
beings, the offspring of his creative power, for he who forged 
out of nothing the multitude of suns and systems which hang 
in fiery zones of burning beauty throughout his almost lim- 
itless universe need not limit his intelligent creatures to men 
and angels. 





CHAPTER V. 

THE GAKDEN OF EDEN. 

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. (Gen. ii. 8.) 

HE Garden of Eden was an earthly paradise. In 
its primitive state it was exquisitely beautiful. It 
abounded with flowers of every variety. Its 
shrubbery has never been surpassed in this world. 
It was full of trees pleasant to the sight. It abounded with 
fruits agreeable to the taste. It afforded the purest earthly 
pleasures. It was the source of the highest worldly enjoy- 
ment. It furnished everything that heart could desire. It 
overflowed with the necessities and groaned under the luxu- 
ries of life. 

This Garden of Eden, as its name signifies, was indeed a 
delightful place. Its situation was the loveliest, its soil the 
most fertile, and its environments faultless. In fact, it had 
been prepared by the Divine Hand as a suitable home for the 
holy, happy pair which God had just created. And up to 
this time it had received no marks of sin upon its fair face. 
The fanning of angels' wings still ventilated its lovely 
bowers. The Divine breath still cooled its flowing foun- 
tains and rolling rivers. And we can easily imagine that 
there could have been no better nor more beautiful place on 
earth than the God-given Garden of Eden. 

This God-given Garden was evidently located ^orth of the 

Persian Gulf, in the eastern part of a country called Eden. 

(88) 



THE FIRST PAIR. 91 

A large river flowed eastward through Eden, and in this 
Garden united with two other rivers, one flowing from the 
north and the other from the west, and they all flowed out of 
the Garden together, to the south, emptying their waters 
into the Persian Gulf. This juncture gave the Garden of 
Eden its four rivers, called in the days of Moses the Pison, 
Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates. 

The extent of the country and the size of the Garden of 
Eden are both unknown, but they were evidently larger than 
w T e would at first thought be inclined to believe. The Land of 
Eden, possibly, was without any definite limits at first. And 
the Garden itself seems to have been large enough to have 
supported the entire animal creation up to the fall of man. 
Eden was no doubt a lovely land, and the spot selected in 
its eastern part for the Garden of the Lord was ornamented 
until its beauties and bounties fully entitled it to the appel- 
lation of an earthly paradise. 

The first pair were placed in this beautiful paradistical 
home soon after their creation. When they entered it every- 
thing was in perfect order, and harmony reigned everywhere. 
Everywhere beauty met the eye, and music fell upon the ear 
of its happy inmates. There Adam and Eve rejoiced in the 
sunshine of a Sovereign's smiles, with no need of a Savior's 
love. For they were there with clean hands, clear heads, 
and holy hearts. They were exempt from all the infirmities 
of body and imperfections of soul to which humanity is now 
heir. They were privileged in conscious innocence to enjoy 
every pleasure that an earthly paradise could possibly afford 
sinless human beings, in favor and fellowship with their God. 
It was theirs to drink in constantly all the real pleasures that 



92 LIVED AND LOVED. 

this world could bestow. Ambrosial fruits bade them pluck 
and eat when they were hungry, limpid streams offered 
them water when they were thirsty, and shady bowers 
tempted them to rest ere they grew tired. They must have 
been supremely blessed. They ought to have been the hap- 
piest of the happy. 

Here the first fond pair lived and loved for a time in all 
the innocence and loveliness of their pristine glory. Here 
they bore upon their brows the sacred impress of Deity, and 
in their souls the express likeness of their Creator. During 
their short sojourn in the Garden there was a cordial and 
constant communion between these holy creatures and their 
Creator. Heaven often sent her guardian angels down to 
Eden's lovely bowers. And Adam and Eve walked and 
talked with God by day with angels to guard and guide 
them by night. The manner of their making rendered them 
capable of the most intimate communion with their Maker. 
They had access daily to the Divine presence, and held 
sweetest intercourse hourly with the Father of Lights. 

The duties and privileges of this sinless pair were found 
in the light labors which God gave them to perform. Adam 
was to dress and keep the Garden. And since Eve was 
given him as a helpmeet it was her privilege to assist him 
whenever opportunity presented itself. She should at least 
have been superintending and encouraging her husband in 
his work, rather than exposing herself in idleness unnecessa- 
rily to the wiles of the tempter. As the sequel to her sad 
story shows, idleness has ever proved a curse to the fair sex 
which Eve represented. To keep the Garden beautiful, to 
gather and enjoy its spontaneous vegetables and delicious 




PARADISE. 



"And the Lord God planted a garden 
eastward in Eden; and there he put the 
man whom he had formed." (Gen. ii. 8.) 



THE TWO TREES. 95 

fruits, were the duties and privileges of these paradistical 
inmates. 

"We cannot tell how long" Adam and Eve remained in 
their Eden home. Their stay was doubtless of very short 
duration. The happy dream was soon over, and the dire 
curse fell like a fatal plague spot upon the fair face of na- 
ture. Their pleasures were evidently short-lived, for, 
though commanded to multiply and replenish the earth, 
they had not greeted their first-born son when, as fallen 
creatures, they were forced to leave their earthly paradise 
for a less congenial home, in the absence of angels and away 
from their God. 

In the midst of this oriental paradise stood two trees, not 
less remarkable for their names than for the nature of the 
wonderful fruits they bore. They were of vital importance 
to humanity. They were the only trees of their species the 
world has ever known. Their fruits alone could impart 
knowledge of good and evil, and perpetuate natural life. 
These two trees, standing as they did side by side in the 
same lovely Garden, represented two very different states of 
existence — namely, that of life and death. They were the 
trees of life and death. 

The first of these remarkable fruit bearers was the tree 
of life. Upon the eating of its products depended the per- 
petuity of the physical structures of Eden's happy inmates. 
They had daily access to its fruits, that the}' might eat and 
live forever. It was the property of the fruit of this tree 
to preserve the body in a state of perfect health, strength, 
and maturity until the time of trial was passed, when, if 
faithful, Adam and Eve would have been confirmed in a 



96 THE SIMPLE TEST. 

state of holiness and privileged to pluck and eat of the 
ambrosial fruit of the tree of eternal life forever and for- 
ever. 

The second of this strange pair was the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil — the tree of death. The fruit of this 
tree was pleasant to the sight, palatable to the taste, and 
desirable to make one wise. But the wisdom was unto 
death. Hence Adam and Eve were prohibited from even 
tasting its tempting fruits, under the penalty of spiritual 
death. In fact, its tempting fruits were placed before this 
sinless pair as a means of trial to their fidelity to God, look- 
ing to their fall from or confirmation in a state of holiness. 

This simple test — as good as God could give — was to de- 
cide, without any extraneous motives, the abstract question 
as to whether or not the creature was willing to render 
such obedience to his Creator as he justly demanded. This 
test was stripped of everything save Divine authority to in- 
fluence human obedience. Hence it was a true test of man's 
fidelity to his Maker. Obedience here would have shown a 
disposition to believe everything that God would say, and 
obey everything he would command, without questioning his 
word or his wisdom. 

Under this simple test the first Adam was on trial as a 
representative of his race. This was the day of his proba- 
tion. And it was absolutely necessary that he have some- 
thing to try him, something to test his fidelity. This is why 
the " apple " was forbidden, and the enemy permitted to en- 
ter Eden's sinless home and Eve's sinless heart. 

God has a wise purpose in everything he does. All his 
purposes may truthfully be said to be eternal, for they will 




DRIVEN OUT. 

"And the Lord God made for Adam and 
for his wife coats of skins, and clothed 
them." (Gen. iii. 21, R. V.) 



So he drove out the man." (Gen. iii. 



24.) 



A LOST PARADISE. 99 

stand forever. God never sends a causeless curse upon any 
of his creatures. That would be inconsistent with the Di- 
vine justice and equity which characterize all his dealings 
with his creatures. 

But the once happy inhabitants of this earthly paradise 
were soon made miserable by sin. They soon learned that 
Satan is very prompt in presenting his claims, and that sin- 
ners must pay tenfold, in pain and poverty, or in shame and 
sorrow, for every short-lived pleasure enjoyed in his majes- 
ty's service. When they lost this earthly paradise they 
lost their all. They even lost their spiritual life, and went 
weeping through the world, crying for life, life, until they 
found it through faith in a promised Messiah. 

This once lovely Garden has long been a lost paradise. 
Adam and Eve were driven out from their happy home. 
They were banished from the presence of the Lord. They 
were sent out into the wide world, homeless and friendless, 
to make their living by the sweat of their brows. They 
were not even allowed an occasional visit to the scenes of 
their happier days. The Garden of Eden was accessible to 
them no more forever. It was a forfeited home, a lost para- 
dise. They passed out with shamefaceclness, bowed heads, 
and aching hearts, while cherubic sentinels were placed at 
the gates of the garden to guard the way back to the tree of 
life. They were now banished from the lovely scenes and 
hallowed associations w T here they had so often met and wor- 
shiped, w T alked and talked with God; and the fiery sword 
of the cherubim, turning in every direction, prevented the 
return of the homeless and helpless pair to their forfeited 
rights to the tree of life. Up to this time they had heard 



100 



A HEAVENLY PARADISE. 



no words of hope fall from the lips, and had seen no lines 
of light play upon the brow of their sin-avenging God. But 
now, in the Person of the woman's seed, he promises them a 
Powerful Deliverer, a Mighty Redeemer, and an Almighty 
Savior. 

But, thank God, there is a Heavenly Paradise; and those 
who once enter its gates and eat of its ambrosial fruits need 
go out no more forever, but will eat and live eternally. 
For this Paradise has its trees of life, the very leaves of 
which are for the healing of the nations. These trees are 
laden with immortal fruitage, ripening monthly for the in- 
habitants of heaven, who are free at all times to pluck and 
eat, and live forever. These fruits are accessible to our 
fallen race. Here is life, endless, immortal, eternal life. 
Mark the ceaseless flight of infinite ages as we walk through 
the flowery dells and fly over the lofty hills of heaven for- 
ever! Chronicler of the circling cycles of eternity, repeat 
the word forever, forever! Eternal life in the Paradise of 
God! 




CHAPTEE VI. 
THE FALL OF OUK FIEST ADAM. 

She . . . did eat . . . and he did eat. fGen. iii. 6.) 

'HEX God placed Adam the first in the Garden of 
Eden he made a covenant with him, known as the 
Adamic covenant, the covenant of works, or the 
law covenant. Xow a covenant between equals 
is simply a mutual understanding or agreement, but between 
a Superior and an inferior, as in this case, it is merely a con- 
ditional promise, or pledge upon the part of the former. 
This covenant placed Adam under a law which required 
perfect and perpetual obedience to God in all things. It de- 
manded human perfection, and nothing short of this could 
have met this demand. God's dealings with men are now, 
and ever have been, ethical in their nature. They have al- 
ways been in the form or after the character of a covenant. 
He is and ever has been a covenant-making and a covenant- 
keeping God. 

This law under which Adam was placed was the moral 
law in embryo. The gist of this Adamic law is contained in 
the ten commandments. This decalogue was afterwards am- 
plified by Moses into the great moral code of the Old Tes- 
tament, and then boiled down by Christ in the Xew Testa- 
ment until we have its essence in the love which he requires 
us to exercise toward God and man. Love is the fulfillment 

of this all-comprehensive law. So you see there has been a 

(101) 



102 THE MORAL LAW. 

constant tightening rather than a relaxation of our moral ob- 
ligations during the march of time. 

This moral law, then, is still in full force, just as it always 
has been; not as a means of justification, but simply as a 
rule of life, by which a man's moral standing may be meas- 
ured and the magnitude of his imperfections shown. For 
it is by this moral Code that we are made cognizant of our 
sins in the sight of God and man. Moral law is simply an 
expression of the Divine will. It is but a revelation of the 
relations out of which it springs as a living expression of our 
eternal interests. And it is exactly the same thing under 
the new that it was under the old dispensation. The gospel 
did not supersede, neither did it suspend, the moral law. 
This law promises life on the condition of perfect and per- 
petual obedience only. It is universal in its application to 
rational beings, binding both men and angels alike to love 
God supremely, and their fellows as they love themselves. 

But government is an impossibility without law, and law a 
nullity without a penalty. Government, law, and penalty 
are inseparably connected. Punishment for the violation 
of law lies at the foundation of all good government. Hence 
God attached a penalty to the law under which he placed 
the first Adam. And that penalty was spiritual death, noth- 
ing more, and nothing less. 

The penalty of this Divine law could have possessed no 
trinal form expressive of a threefold death. It was a single 
death, referring only to the soul. " The soul that sinneth; 
it shall die." The penalty, then, of the Adamic law was a 
single thing, having but one form, and that form was evi- 
dently spiritual or soul death. This is evident from the 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 103 

single fact that the penalty of any sin cannot justly be vis- 
ited upon any save the subject which commits the sin. And 
in this case when the law was violated the sinning subject 
was evidently the soul. In fact, all sin is necessarily of the 
soul, because it is a voluntary violation of Divine law. But 
the soul only sustains such relations to the law of God as in- 
volve a choice between obedience and disobedience to his 
commands. Hence the soul of Adam only could have in- 
curred guilt and become exposed to the infliction of this 
death penalty. Xow the consequences of sin may, and often 
do, go farther than this, and materially affect the body. But 
the full force of the penalty must, in justice, be spent upon 
the sinning subject, which, in this instance, must have been 
the condemned soul. Hence the conclusion: this penalty 
could have been nothing more nor less than spiritual death. 

Now spiritual death is a separation of spirits. It is spir- 
itual destitution. It is a cessation of communion between a 
human spirit and the Divine Spirit. It is the withdrawal of 
the soul from the life and love of God. This is exactly what 
took place at the violation of the Divine law by the first 
Adam, therefore it must have been the penalty of his trans- 
gression. This spiritual death was inseparably connected 
with Adam and Eve's first sin against God, and followed it 
just as necessarily as effect follows its legitimate cause. 

Physical death could have been no part nor parcel of the 
threatened penalty, for it is a separation of soul and body 
which did not occur in the day that Adam partook of the 
forbidden fruit. His physical death was the result of Divine 
appointment and expulsion from the tree of life. This ap- 
pointment was made just after the fall, but it was not met by 



104 ETERNAL IN ITS NATURE. 

Adam until he had numbered his nine hundred and thirty 
years. The body is never a sinning subject, but simply an 
instrument through which the soul sometimes sinneth. 
Hence the body does not incur, and cannot pay, penalty. 
So physical death can only be a consequence of sin, and no 
part of its penalty. 

Eternal death is an eternal separation of both soul and 
body from God, who made them, and hence could not have 
been any part of this penalty; for Adam and Eve expe- 
rienced no such fate as this on the day they ate of the 
fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. 

In the clay thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, or, 
dying, thou shalt die, is the language in which this penalty 
was proclaimed to Adam. And he did die at the very time 
and in the very way that God told him he would if he vio- 
lated his holy law. He died then and there a spiritual 
death. The penalty threatened was instantly visited upon 
the offender. But this death penalty was not one of mo- 
mentary or limited duration. It was, like all death penal- 
ties, eternal in its nature; and hence no finite being could 
complete its payment in time. But, what it would require 
an eternity for the finite to do could be, and was, done in a 
moment by the Infinite. For who would dare say that the 
spiritual death of the Infinite Redeemer, though but for a 
moment, was not equivalent to what would have been the 
endless spiritual death of nonredeemed finite creatures? 

Under this law covenant, with its death penalty, Adam 
was on trial as the parental, and hence legitimate, represent- 
ative of his prospective race. And it was infinitely better 
that he, in the perfection of his newly created powers, 



QUE FEDERAL HEAD. 105 

should represent his posterity, than that each one of us, in 
the weakness and want of maturity experienced in youth, 
should have been his or her own representative. The chances 
for each and every one of us were much better in Adam 
than they could possibly have been had we been privileged 
to represent ourselves under this law 7 covenant — infinitely 
better, since personal trial must have been made with our 
fallen natures, which would have rendered impossible, under 
the law, perfect fidelity to our God. 

But the command to multiply and replenish the earth, it 
will be remembered, was given before the fall. So, if our 
first parents had stood the test, their posterity, with them- 
selves, would have been forever holy and happy. All would 
have been confirmed in a sinless state. This we could read- 
ily have regarded as perfectly equitable and just. Then 
why not reconcile ourselves to the fact, which is just as le- 
gitimate, that, since they fell, their offspring necessarily 
fell with them? The same principle governs in either case. 
Hereditary depravity is just as equitable as hereditary 
righteousness could possibly have been. The law of like- 
ness in ordinary generation is universal. It knows no ex- 
ceptions. The destinies of all Adam's descendants were 
wisely suspended on his action as their legal representative. 

The first Adam was evidently the Federal Head of the 
human family in his trial under the law covenant. The 
parallels run by the Apostle Paul between the ruin and re- 
demption of the race in the fifteenth chapter of First Co- 
rinthians and the fifth chapter of Romans prove this to be 
true beyond the shadow of a doubt. The first Adam was 
just as truly a legal representative in the wreck and ruin of 



106 OUR FREE AGENCY. 

the race, under the reign of sin, as the Second Adam is, in 
the redemption and restoration of the same to righteousness, 
under the covenant of grace. 

Adam was a proper subject of this law covenant. He 
was a free moral agent. He was father to his own volitions. 
He willed for himself. He possessed the ability to render 
perfect obedience to the Divine law; and, had he done so, 
he would have wrought out for himself and posterity a per- 
fect representative character. God created Adam with the 
possibility, but not with the necessity, of sinning. Hence 
his fall was a possibility. God himself could not coerce 
him in his choice between good and evil without destroying 
his free agency in the matter and rendering his actions 
void of merit or demerit. This freedom of choice given 
to man raises the empire of thought above the sphere of hu- 
man action, and lets him think as he will, though at times 
he is helpless to put his thoughts into execution. 

There is no necessary connection between our volitions 
and their causes. If so, we could not will otherwise than 
as necessitated; and this would destroy our accountability. 
But there is a necessary connection between our volitions 
and their effects; for, otherwise, when we willed right, evil 
might be the result; and again, our accountability would be 
destroyed. There is also a fixed connection between our 
conduct and its consequences, and hence our responsibility 
to God along this line of life. 

Free agency relates to the soul, not to the body. Adam 
was free to will to fly, but he was not free to fly, for he had 
no wings. It is the same way with all of us. We are free 
to will as we may, but we are not always at liberty to do 



FREEDOM OF THE WILL. 107 

what we will to perform. The will of man is at perfect lib- 
erty in its volitions, but no reference to inert matter can il- 
lustrate that liberty possessed by a living, active, moral 
agent. 

Adam was free to choose between the good and the evil, 
between life and death, between heaven and hell. His in- 
nate ability to do right or wrong, to obey or disobey, ac- 
cording to his own willing, was the true basis of his moral 
obligations and accountability to God. The right of choice 
in these matters is the birthright of every rational soul, and 
hence we are all accountable beings before God. Motives, 
arguments, and circumstances are each and all indebted to 
the active energies of the mind for all the influences they 
exert over the man. It is the noncoerced free agency of 
man which gives influence to every motive presented to the 
mind, and fixes the will accordingly. 

Thank God there is no power behind the throne of human 
reason to dominate the freedom of the will, and necessitate 
its volitions. Even the strongest motive is not necessarily 
the cause of volition, for volition may not follow motive at 
all. But any cause must be followed by its legitimate effect 
every time. The siren circle of necessity sings but to lure 
us from the paths of duty and the way to glory and to God. 

The free agency and accountability of man are insepara- 
bly connected. To cancel one is to erase both from the ar- 
chives of human history. Men are not mere machines or 
passive instruments in the hands of their Maker. They have 
free active wills of their own, even though they be through 
regeneration and sanctification in perfect harmony with the 
Divine will. And this freedom of the will consists in the ab- 



108 NONCOERCIVE CREATURES. 

sence of anything and everything that would tend to neces- 
sitate its volitions or dominate its empire of liberty. This 
liberty of the will is the negative of the doctrine of neces- 
sity, and the two can never be reconciled. 

The freedom of the will relates to the internal volitions of 
the soul, and not to the external acts of the body. And yet 
free moral agency in its fullest Biblical sense consists in the 
perfect freedom of both soul and body — the absence of all con- 
straining influences of an arbitrary character, to either the vo- 
lition of the one or the action of the other. ]S"o type of ne- 
cessity in volition, choice, or action is reconcilable to man's 
free moral agency and accountability to God. And yet there 
is a necessity of volition, choice, and action laid upon each and 
every one of us. But at the same time we are perfectly free 
to will, choose, and act in the light of an honest, rational, 
and responsible being. We can be forced neither to the 
right nor to the left. We are noncoercive creatures. The 
actions of a free agent are necessitated in the sense that he 
must act, but the kind of actions he puts forth are the re- 
sult of his own choosing. Every man, for instance, is forced 
to choose betAveen life and death, but he is perfectly free as 
to which he chooses. 

Even God's eternal decrees of foreordination and reproba- 
tion are so conditioned upon man's obedience and disobe- 
dience to the Divine will and Word that they do not cross 
the line of human liberty; much less do they destroy the visi- 
ble traces of man's free moral agency, from his creation to the 
cross, nor from the cross to the crown. So the free agency 
of man is easily reconciled to the sovereignty of God. There 
are no inherent difficulties in this subject. God is a Sover- 



GOD IS A SOVEREIGN. 109 

eign, always was and always will be; but he is not an arbi- 
trary, tyrannical, or despotic Sovereign. He is rather a Just 
and Merciful Monarch, reigning in righteousness. 

God's acts are all purely sovereign. But there is just as 
much sovereignty in creating men free agents as there could 
possibly have been in creating them with predetermined and 
inevitable destinies. God does not surrender a single ele- 
ment of his sovereignty over man in allowing him freedom 
of choice between good and evil, life and death. And when 
this Holy Sovereign grants to men the right of choice, and 
insists that they shall choose life and live, he cannot be 
merely mocking at their misery. Holiness of heart and pu- 
rity of life are both made to depend upon personal choice 
and personal obedience to the requirements of God's Word 
under the Covenant of Grace. This sounds pleasantly to 
the ear, and sits lightly on the heart of man. But this free 
agency does not give us the liberty or ability to do as we 
wish to at all times. We are not independent agents. We 
derive all our powers, both of volition and action, from God. 
We are free agents, because endowed with self-active pow- 
ers. We are moral agents, because our actions relate to a 
rule of right and wrong. 

God gave our first parents a good chance for life. He 
placed them under circumstances the most favorable to obe- 
dience, to be left at the same time free to disobey his holy 
commands. He endowed them with all the powers requisite 
to free moral agency, without any antecedent principle of 
virtue or vice being implanted in their nature calculated to 
dominate their wills. Their minds were active in their voli- 
tions, and carried with them the conviction that their wills 



110 GOD NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN. 

were free from the dominion of a controlling necessity. 
God gave man no moral character at his creation. He left 
him to develop one after his own liking. He did not so 
much as place a virtuous principle in the soul, from which 
virtuous acts must necessarily flow; for the same line of log- 
ic would implant within him a concreated vicious principle in 
which all vicious acts have their origin. And this would make 
God the Author of vice as well as of virtue in man. But 
to make God the Author of evil is to render him, no less than 
Satan, a wicked accomplice in all the sins of the human race. 

God simply created Adam an innocent and spotless being, 
destitute both of righteousness and wickedness of his own, 
until one or the other could be developed by his own con- 
duct in the formation of his own character. 

We cannot believe that God in any direct or indirect 
sense is the Author of sin. The darkness surrounding the 
origin and existence of evil is often augmented in our fruit- 
less efforts at a satisfactory solution of some of the unrevealed 
mysteries of the spiritual universe. Even the fact that our 
field of vision is so limited is no reason why it should be 
forever traversed by contradictions so patent and absurd as 
that which attributes the origin of evil to the Author of all 
good. Omnipotence cannot harmonize contradictions. God 
cannot prevent the existence of evil in a free moral agent 
against that agent's will. 

We speak reverently : There are many things that the In- 
finite Jehovah cannot do. He cannot lie. He cannot sin. 
He cannot look upon our sins with allowance. Neither can 
he make a saint out of a sinner against his will. Hence it 
follows that God could neither prevent the origin of sin nor 



A DARK ENIGMA. Ill 

put an end to its existence among his free moral agents. In 
fact, every state implies its opposite. Rest naturally stands 
over against motion, order against anarchy, light against 
darkness, life against death, and heaven against hell. Our 
comprehension of any state is dependent upon our knowledge 
of, at least, the abstract existence of its correlative. Good 
and evil are the two foci of the moral universe. Around one 
or the other of these foci all moral natures revolve, and to- 
ward one or the other of them all moral characters are drawn. 
The origin of evil is often a dark enigma, even to the eye 
of faith. But one thing is sun-clear to enlightened reason: 
God could not create an intelligent free agent and place him 
beyond the liability to sin. For, remove the possibility of 
disobedience from an agent, with life and death before him, 
and that moment you rob obedience of all its virtue, merits, 
and rewards. God permits sin to exist, then, simply because 
he cannot, in the nature of the case, prevent it. But man 
was not the first transgressor of the Divine law. Sin did 
not have its origin on this earth. It originated in heaven 
among the angels of God, an order of beings higher in rank 
and holier in life than man ever was. If such beings could 
sin, so could Adam. But they fell without a foreign tempt- 
er, while he fell under the seductions of the arch fiend of hell. 
This may account for the fact that they were passed by in the 
rich and boundless provisions of the great Remedial System, 
looking to the redemption and restoration of our race. The 
fountain of evil, then, does not proceed from the bosom of 
our God, but had its birth in the heart, and was borne to 
this world in the personage of the chief of the fallen angels, 
God's and man's greatest adversary, the devil. 



112 SUSCEPTIBLE TO TEMPTATION. 

But Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. They 
were enjoying its pleasures and feasting upon its luxuries. 
It was their day of probation. A test was necessary to a 
trial. The law said, Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil; and the penalty said, In the 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The test giv- 
en was of the simplest character conceivable. It merely re- 
quired loyal obedience to a plain, positive command. The 
precept was a negative one, and hence a better test of their 
fidelity and allegiance to God could not have been given 
them. It w-as a command destitute of everything calculated 
to influence them to obedience save the expressed will and 
well-known authority of God. God desired obedience from 
them on no other grounds than that he had commanded it. 
This was the only fair test of submission to the Divine gov- 
ernment, under which they had been placed. This command 
imposed no burden upon them, but was accompanied with 
liberty to partake of all the other trees in the fruitful Gar- 
den of Eden. And it w T as so plain and easily remembered 
that there could be no valid excuse for their disobedience. 

Adam and Eve were both susceptible to temptation. 
These susceptibilities were necessary to their trial. But 
they imply no sin in persons possessing them, but simply 
the possibility of sinning. For the sinless Christ was also 
susceptible to temptation, was tempted, but yielded not. 
The sin is not in being tempted, but in yielding to the temp- 
tation. God did not suffer Adam and Eve, and will not suf- 
fer us, to be tempted above that w 7 e are able to bear, for with 
every temptation he will give us grace by which, if we will 
use it as Jesus did, we may overcome the tempter. 




THE TEMPTATION. 



"And the serpent said unto the woman, 
Ye shall not surely die." (Gen. iii. 4; re- 
fer also to verses 5 and 6.) 





• m.O^ftHL B 



AFTER THE FALL. 



"And he placed at the east of the garden 
of Eden cherubim, and a naming sword 
Which turned every way, to keep the way 
of the tree of life." (Gen. iii. 24.) 



EVE AND THE APPLE. 115 

The temptation to eat the forbidden fruit came to Eve 
from Satan through the agency of a literal serpent. The at- 
tack of the serpent was secret and subtle rather than open 
and reckless. So are all the assaults of Satan, until he has 
his victim well in hand. He always fights along this line, 
unless he has a decided advantage over the object of his de- 
struction. He is willing to entice and allure one from the 
path of rectitude and right at first that he may afterwards 
drive him with his scorpionlike scourge down to the regions 
of endless despair. Leaving the dark dungeons of hell, Sa- 
tan spread wide his withering wings over all the world, drop- 
ping poison from his sable plumes until he has left the whole 
earth sick with sin, and many souls sinking into irretrieva- 
able woe. 

The serpent, or snake, prior to the fall, was the most 
subtle of all the lower animals, as the success of his efforts 
clearly demonstrates. In his artless way he spoke words 
which shook Eve's confidence in, and weakened her sense 
of obligation to, her God. He appealed to her appetite, her 
sense of sight, and her desire for increased knowledge and 
happiness. He bore false testimony and deceived her, both 
in regard to the character and consequences of her trans- 
gression. To this confiding creature these were all-power- 
ful motives, influences to action. Her mistake, like ours, 
lay in listening to the artful story of the w 7 ily tempter. 

Eve looked and saw the apple, her intelligence enabled 
her to recognize it as such, her emotional nature gave her a 
desire to eat the same, her will decided to gratify that de- 
sire; and here is the embryo of her sin. She moved her hand 
in harmony with her will, plucked and ate the forbidden 



116 ALL WAS LOST. 

fruit; and here, in the veritable, overt act of disobedience, 
we have her sin developed into an actual transgression of 
God's holy law. The deed was done, and the serpent re- 
tired from the scene of action. The crisis had come. The 
time of temptation had overtaken the once happy pair, and 
they were fast sinking under their weight of woe. Eve, un- 
happy Eve, now spiritually dead, carried the forbidden 
fruit to her devoted husband, whom she readily influenced 
to eat and to share her fearful fate. The serpent had be- 
guiled the woman; she now enticed the man. He yielded, 
ate, and all was lost. 

The crime of Adam and Eve did not consist simply in the 
external act of eating an apple. The seat of their sin lay 
deep in their souls. It consisted in their shameful disre- 
gard for the Divine authority and their willful disobedience 
to the Divine law It consisted in a disregard for the inhe- 
rent and eternal principles of right, and not in the mere vio- 
lation of concreated laws — that is, laws inherent in the human 
conscience. This sin incurred the Divine displeasure of the 
Father. He was sorely wounded at the uncalled-for con- 
duct of his creatures. But their sin against God was also 
a sin against themselves and their posterity. Sin always is 
self-injected poison to the sinner. In the act of eating the 
forbidden fruit were embodied the unbelief, disobedience, 
and enmity of man toward his Maker. Adam's sin severed 
the bond which bound him to his God, cut off his access to 
the tree of life, and banished him forever from the Eden 
home of his innocence and love. 

So long as Adam remained obedient to the Divine law 
there was perfect harmony between the creature and the 



THEN FOLLOWED THE CURSES. 117 

Creator; but the very moment he disobeyed the command 
of his Maker there was an infraction of the law, an aliena- 
tion of the parties; and spiritual death ensued at once as 
the inevitable result or legitimate penalty, independent of 
any executive power, save the Divine, to enforce the law; for 
this penalty was the necessary effect of an unnecessary cause. 
The sin of Adam may appear at first thought to be insig- 
nificant, but the magnitude of the penalty attached proves 
it to be otherwise, since the Divine Lawgiver could but 
proportion the punishment to the enormity of the sin com- 
mitted. The penalty of Divine law as to its severity is al- 
ways determined by the turpitude of the offense; and since 
this law was inviolable, its penalty was of necessity im- 
mutable. The law, allowing no sin, could make no pro- 
vision for pardon. 

Man fell. Then followed the curses consequent upon the 
fall. The curse pronounced upon the serpent doubtless had 
a twofold application, referring primarily to the serpent it- 
self as the representative of its species; and secondarily to 
Satan, that old serpent, the devil. In this curse hope first 
dawned upon fallen humanity in the Promised Seed, which 
was to overthrow the usurped dominion of Satan. With ref- 
erence to the fulfillment of the curses announced against the 
woman and the man, the suffering daughters of Eve and the 
toil-worn sons of Adam, in connection with the silent graves 
of earth, give ample and unquestionable evidence. But the 
ground was also cursed for man's sake — for his good, be- 
cause it became best for him, in his fallen state, to eat his 
bread bv the sweat of his own brow. 

The effects of the fall were many and varied. It opened 



118 WEDDED TO THE WKONG. 

the eyes of Adam and Eve to the fact that they were naked. 
It showed them their sin, shame, and guilt before their God. 
The fall filled them with fear, and they hid themselves in 
the bowers of Eden from the presence of their God. It 
left them without a city of refuge, and in constant dread 
of greater manifestations of the Divine wrath upon their 
sinful souls. It gave them an experimental knowledge of 
good and evil, such as they had never known before. It 
left their heads aching with the memories of lost blessings, 
their hearts bleeding over the trials of their present state, 
and their souls saddened with the forebodings of an uncer- 
tain future. 

In the fall man lost all power of choice between right and 
wrong. Having chosen the wrong, he was eternally wedded 
to the wrong, with no innate power to divorce himself from 
the same. He moved rapidly down into the sunless and 
starless regions of spiritual death. His spiritual powers at 
once lost all their vigorous action and vital force, and every 
virtuous plant, floral grace, and holy affection was left to 
wither, wilt, and die. 

This fall of man was a fall from God. JSlo sooner had 
man fallen than his affections were taken from God and 
fastened upon the world. God foresaw this fall from all 
eternity, and could have prevented it by refusing to create 
man at all, or by making him other than a free moral agent. 
But, having so created him, he could not, consistently with 
his own character or man's free agency, interpose any pre- 
vention to his sin, However, it was evidently infinitely 
better to create man a free moral agent, and let him fall, 
than not to create him at all. 



EFFECTS OF THE FALL. 119 

The effects of the fall are felt to-day by the entire human 
family. The consequences of Adam's sin are many and uni- 
versal in their effects. The curse extends over all the earth. 
It affects even the animal creation and the vegetable king- 
dom. The earth itself was cursed for man's sake. Prior to 
this fall the whole world was a paradise in comparison with 
what it has since been. The great diversity of races in the 
human family, the vast difference in the color, condition, 
and conduct of men, are simply so many effects of sin in 
the world. But for the fall there would have been no mut- 
tering thunders, volcanic eruptions, nor mighty earthquakes 
to trouble our hearts and endanger our lives. But, worst of 
all, in the fall the soul lost its Divine likeness, and the im- 
age in the body was woefully marred and disfigured. 

Adam was a fallen creature. Like begets its like. Such 
was the relation which he sustained to his posterity that the 
consequences of his sin were visited upon them. His of- 
fense brought want and woe upon the world. We all de- 
rive our sinful nature from him. The stream is naturally 
like the fountain from which it flows. Adam sinned, and 
the Spirit left him. The tide of evil turned in upon him 
and overflowed his entire nature. In this state of sin his 
offspring enter this life, with all their tendencies to evil. 
In his fall Adam forfeited the gift of spiritual life for him- 
self and his posterity, with all spiritual good, and brought 
upon the entire race all the evils implied in spiritual death. 
This withdrawal of life was the lifting up of the flood gates 
of death which deluged the souls of mankind with all man- 
ner of vice and iniquity. 

Sin, then, is inherent in our fallen nature, and hence nat- 



120 ADAM'S DESCENDANTS. 

urally manifests and develops itself in all our lives. It is 
hereditary, descending from ancestor to offspring, according 
to a fundamental law in nature. Adam and Eve may both 
have been regenerated before a child was born to them after 
the fall; but, if so, this was a supernatural work of the Holy 
Spirit, and hence its effects could not be transmitted by them 
to their posterity. The natural cannot propagate the super- 
natural. This is why the children of Christian parents are 
not born in a regenerated or saved state. Adam's posterity 
has inherited only the damaged and defaced lineaments of a 
spiritual nature, the principal attributes of which are pu- 
rity, justice, truth, and love. 

Posterity naturally resembles its ancestry in soul quali- 
ties no less than in bodily features. No wonder! for the 
souls of all Adam's descendants are derived by ordinary 
generation, just like their bodies; and hence the transmission 
of original or inbred sin from soul to soul, or from parent 
to posterity, down through the ages. Innate sin must have 
its seat in the soul before birth, for a sinless soul could not 
contaminate a body destitute of moral character, nor could 
such a body ever corrupt a sinless soul. Human nature was 
woefully corrupted through Adam's disobedience, and this 
corrupted nature has been transmitted to all his posterity. 
In fact, both physical evil and spiritual death w T ere trans- 
mitted, so that both the souls and bodies of all his descend- 
ants have been affected by the fall. 

Adam and Eve gave us a race in which the nature, char- 
acter, disposition, and lives of the parents determine by a he- 
reditary law those of their children. The doom and destiny 
of nations have been written in the deeds and developments 



UNIVERSAL DEPRAVITY. 121 

of their ancestors. The conduct of our first father and 
mother gave a different direction to the entire current of 
human history. A progenitor with a sinful nature, though 
regenerated, could have no other than a sinful progeny so 
long as the law of like producing like holds good. This 
law of heredity is fundamental in our very nature, and is 
everywhere recognized in God's Word. Children are blessed 
in good and cursed in wicked parentage, even down as far 
as the fourth generation. 

The universal depravity of mankind is sufficient evidence 
that the entire race descended from one fallen father. Hu- 
man depravity was one of the sad effects of the fall on Ad- 
am's posterity. There is no spiritual good in any unregen- 
erate heart. They are all inclined to evil, and that contin- 
ually. This depravity affects all the faculties and affections 
of the human soul. It pollutes and perverts all the spiritual 
powers of our human nature. It is the negative of all posi- 
tive good; so that among its unregenerate millions there are 
none who do good, no, not one. Depravity is soul corrup- 
tion. It is the effect of original, inbred sin. It is the nat- 
ural taint of sin in the soul which blackens our lives and 
blasts our hopes of heaven, as we deepen its dye by our own 
vile thoughts, wicked words, and vicious acts. 

He who is born of the flesh inherits a carnal, corrupt 
nature, into which evil is as evidently engrafted as is the 
poison into the embryo of the deadly upas, or the eggs of 
the venomous adder. Hence it is just as natural for youth 
to sin as it is for the young viper to make poison the power 
of his defense in the hour of danger. Only the impure 
fountain sends forth a corrupt stream. 




CHAPTEK VII. 

THE EEDEMPTION OF OUK EACE. 

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. (Gal. xiii. 3.) 

^^2jv^!?HE redemption of our race is the greatest event 
upon record. It involved difficulties which only 
omniscience could solve and omnipotence remove- 
Yes, infinite wisdom was displayed in the re- 
demptive scheme, and infinite power accomplished the work 
which freed us from the curse of the law. A draw had to 
be made upon the Infinite in order to the redemption of the 
finite. 

To redeem means to buy back, to deliver from, to set at 
liberty. But there is a radical difference between this re- 
demption from the penalty of the law through Christ's spir- 
itual death and our restoration or redemption to God through 
the shed blood of Calvary, or the eternal redemption of both 
soul and body in heaven. The first clearly implies deliver- 
ance from a fearful evil, and the second points out a restora- 
tion to a great good, while the third culminates in the ulti- 
mate consummation of both the redemptive and restorative 
work of the great Remedial system. In other words, re- 
demption is an accommodative term. In the sense in 
which we now use the word it has reference to the deliv- 
erance of our entire race from the penalty of the Adamic 
transgression. But in a more general sense it includes the 

work of restoration, while in its most comprehensive sense 

(122) 




THE ANNUNCIATION. (Professor E. Deger.) 



"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, 
Mary: for thou hast found favor with 
God." (Luke i. 3U.) 




THE CHILD JESUS. (F. T. Grosse.) 



"And when eight days were accom- 
plished for the circumcising of the child, 
his name was called Jesus." (Luke ii. 21.) 



THE RADIANT STAR OF HOPE. 125 

it also compasses the resurrection, and reunites the souls and 
bodies of the sleeping saints in a glorified state. 

The entire race had fallen with Adam and Eve under the 
curse, or penalty of the violated law. Xot a single ray of 
spiritual light penetrated the dense darkness which envi- 
roned their lost souls. Xot a solitary wave of spiritual life 
rippled over the ebon bosom of that moonless, starless night 
of death into which they had gone down, apparently forever. 
Eden's sun had set in sorrow's saddest hour upon the soul, 
for man thought that all was eternally lost. The penalty of 
the broken law hung like a nightmare of spiritual death 
over man's fallen nature. Divine justice still asserted her 
claims upon souls which were helpless and hopelessly bank- 
rupt. The law still demanded perfect obedience, but fallen 
man had no spiritual life out of which to generate such obe- 
dience. 

But soon the radiant star of hope broke through the black- 
ness of that sable night, which had settled down upon their 
sad souls, and hung in its loveliness, beautiful and bright, in 
the ebon vault far above their drooping heads and aching* 
hearts. But this brilliant star of hope was the oi\\j light that 
illumined the soul's sunless firmament through the long night 
of succeeding centuries. And ofttimes dark despair pitched 
his pavilions upon the sterile wastes of man's long-lost es- 
tate, while heaven's precious promise dimmed in the deep- 
ening darkness of that spiritual death which enveloped a 
ruined race. The spiritual heavens were long concealed by 
the dark curtains of this ebon night of death. But at length 
an opening was made by the Divine Hand, and through the 
rent poured the radiance from the Sun of Righteousness 



126 THE PAYMENT OF THE PENALTY. 

upon a benighted race, opening up to it a luminous pathway 
through his matchless grace to endless glory and to God. 

The entire race was resting under the penalty of the di- 
vine law, and this penalty was spiritual death. Humanity 
was spiritually dead, and hence powerless to redeem itself 
from this terrible death penalty. The law still had its claims 
upon all men; for one act of disobedience did not license 
another, nor did it justify any failure in the future. Angels 
were powerless to rescue man from the depth of sin into 
which he had fallen. Adam could not be pardoned by Di- 
vine prerogative, upon sovereign principles. This would 
have been for the Divine Lawgiver to have ignored the 
claims of his own law which he had already declined to do in 
the case of the fallen angels. Neither could he have been 
pardoned on the sole condition of repentance; for repent- 
ance was powerless to palliate the sins of the past, or repair 
the breach made in the law of the Lord. If pardoned at all, 
it must be in harmony with the requirements of the divine 
law, which he had violated. Hence his redemption must, 
of necessity, precede his pardon. So at this critical juncture 
in human history our Second Adam came to the rescue, and 
pledged himself to repair the breach made in the law, pay its 
penalty, and bring the race out from under the law covenant 
and place it under the covenant of grace. 

The existence and authority of the divine government de- 
manded the payment of this penalty. Such is the relation 
existing between the law and the government of God that 
the former could not be violated with impunity without de- 
stroying both the authority and existence of the latter. The 
payment of this penalty, then, was necessary to the very ex- 



ALL IMPORTANT ELEMENTS. 127 

istence of the divine government; for man could not recall 
his offense, neither could he repair the injuries nor recom- 
pense the divine government with an equivalent. Hence the 
penalty must be paid by himself or a suitable substitute. If 
paid by the first Adam, a finite being, it will require an infi- 
nite period of time; but if paid by the Second Adam, an In- 
finite Being, it will require only a finite period of time. 

And yet sin was introduced into the world through hu- 
man activity. Hence human agency w r as necessary to the 
restoration of our race through redemption to the Divine fa- 
vor. But this sin was also a transgression of the divine 
law — a law infinitely just and good — and hence could be 
atoned for only by a Divine Redeemer. So redemption from a 
penalty of such a law absolutely demanded the union of the 
human and Divine elements as found in the two natures of 
the Second Adam, our God-man. ^So other Personage could 
have represented God and man, and opened up a way of re- 
turn for the revolted finite will to the righteous will of the In- 
finite and Eternal One. So if we fail to comprehend fully 
the incarnation of our Second Adam relative to the unity of 
his two distinct natures, we can, at least, understand some 
of their practical bearings upon the great Remedial System, 
of which they were ail-important elements. 

The principal object of divine law is the highest interests 
of the intelligent universe. Upon the stability of the divine 
government hangs the eternal interests of all intelligent be- 
ings. Hence God could not wave the penalty of his law 
and pardon by mere prerogative, when every attribute of his 
being and every interest of his moral universe forbade it. 
Being pledged to maintain the principles of his divine govern- 



128 THE CLAIMS OF JUSTICE. 

me nt, God was not at liberty to pardon even the penitent 
Adam until the penalty was virtually paid and expiation 
made for his guilty soul. In the redemptive features of 
Christ's atoning work divine love met the claims and satis- 
fied the demands of divine justice. The riches of divine grace 
met and mingled with the terrors of divine wrath until the 
penalty was paid and salvation was offered to all men. 

This redemption consisted in the removal of all the diffi- 
culties which stood in the way of man's salvation from the 
dominion of sin and Satan, and his restoration to the Divine 
favor. These barriers were the claims of divine justice and 
the penalty of the broken law. The law had to be kept, and 
the penalty had to be paid in full before Mercy could extend 
her ready hand to succor and to save fallen humanity. But 
this is just what the Second Adam, as the Second Represent- 
ative and Redeemer of his race, accomplished in his re- 
demptive work. He kept the law perfectly in every par- 
ticular; he was obedient in all things, and thus satisfied the 
claims of divine justice. Then he paid the death penalty in 
his own spiritual death upon the cross; and this both mend- 
ed and magnified the law, making it honorable in the sight of 
men and angels. 

This redemption changed the relation of the entire race to 
God. From prisoners of despair it made us prisoners of 
hope. It tendered us a legal standing before him, and offered 
us a new trial ; this time personally for ourselves, and that, 
too, under a new and better covenant — even the covenant of 
divine grace. 

But our redemption, remember, was from the curse and 
not from the claims of the moral law. These claims are still 



THE ONLY DOOR OF HOPE. 129 

as binding upon each one of us as they were upon the first 
Adam. And yet there is a sense in which we are not under 
law at all since our redemption, but under grace. Before 
the fall man was dependent upon perfect obedience to the 
Divine Will, in order to his confirmation in a state of holiness. 
But we are not under law in that sense now. We are no 
longer dependent upon our perfect personal obedience to 
the moral code, for the salvation of our souls. And yet the 
moral law is just as binding on us as it was upon the first 
Adam, and it is only through the interposition of divine 
grace by the Second Adam that our many offenses may be 
pardoned at all. So yon see our salvation is not dependent 
upon our perfect obedience to the law, but upon our reception 
of this gift of grace, through heart faith in our Redeemer. 
In this sense, then, we are under grace, and not under the 
law; for the law cannot save us now. Since the fall man 
must be saved by grace, if saved at all. 

Redemption in Christ opened the only door of hope to 
fallen humanity. Without this redemption there could have 
been no offer of salvation to our lost race. Regeneration is 
hinged upon redemption. It could not possibly have pre- 
ceded it. The gulf between the lost soul and a sympathetic 
Savior had to be bridged over before one penitent sinner 
could be saved. In Christ alone was to be found a power 
competent to deal with a broken law, obey all its precepts, 
meet its full force, pay its penalty, and thus protect man 
from its demands, which he in his fallen condition is unable 
to meet. 

In order to our redemption Christ was born under the 

law. He was verily God manifested in the flesh. He was 

9 



130 REDEMPTION UNCONDITIONAL. 

no less the Son of God the Father; and hence not less Di- 
vine the night he slept in the manger than he was the clay he 
hung upon the Cross. Hence his Divinity as well as his 
humanity was under the law. The Author of Divine law 
was under that law just as the author of human law often 
places himself, along with the others, under the laws of his 
own legislating. But this was nothing so remarkably 
strange. God always was, and doubtless always will be, 
subject to a strict observance of his moral code, in so far as 
it is applicable to him and his environments. He would be 
the last to violate that law. 

This redemption made no one righteous. It was the pay- 
ment of the penalty, but did not remove the guilt of sin 
from a single soul. There was universal redemption in 
Christ, but not universal salvation. Redemption was un- 
conditional, but salvation is conditional. We are all God's 
by redemption, having been bought with a price, but we 
are not all his by the washing of regeneration and the re- 
newing of the Holy Spirit. Look at it as we may, we can- 
not get rid of the fact that Christ bought us back in our re- 
demption from under the curse or penalty of the Adamic 
transgression as a unit — as a race. 

Our restoration or personal deliverance from the domin- 
ion of sin is sometimes spoken of as a redemption in the 
Scriptures; but the penalty which Christ paid for all men 
has no direct reference to our personal sins, but simply se- 
cures our release from punishment, the penal result of the 
Adamic transgression. The payment of this penalty did 
not propose to exempt any one, not even A darn and Eve 
themselves, from future punishment, if incurred through 



JUSTICE DEMANDS RETRIBUTION. 131 

impenitence and unbelief. It left each one of us with cor- 
rupt natures, which must be changed through an applica- 
tion of the blood, or we w T ill pay the more fearful penalty 
of the new covenant, which is eternal death, ^"ow this 
eternal death penalty is in keeping with the continued im- 
penitence and sin of the doomed and damned of earth. 
Their lost souls will not cease to sin against God be- 
cause they are sent to hell, but they will sin on and sin 
forever. 

But it was beyond the Divine prerogative to arrest the 
penalty of his violated law. To suspend by sovereign 
power a law enacted for the good of all in behalf of the 
few of his creatures would be to jeopardize the univer- 
sal good in the interests of a part of his subjects. An 
earthly sovereign might do so, but the All- Wise Sovereign 
of the universe could never so act. Hence the payment of 
Divine penalties, when incurred, is an absolute necessity. 
The glory of God and the good of his creatures demand as 
much. There could be no power to pardon until the pen- 
alty is paid. 

But justice is the foundation of penalty. It demands ret- 
ribution. It calls down punishment on the head of every 
wrong doer. Justice always and everywhere implies two 
parties who have rights to be regarded in the adjustment of 
the relations existing between them. And justice in any 
being necessarily relates to the inalienable rights of those 
with whom he has to do. Even a just God cannot ignore 
the rights of his dependent creatures. The merits of fallen 
man are too light in the scales of divine justice; but the 
righteousness of Christ, our Second Adam, makes up the 



132 THE PURPOSE OF PENALTY. 

deficiency and lowers the beam to salvation's level. The 
merits of our Second Representative are as far above the 
law as the demerits of oar first representative were below 
it. Hence through the faith of the redeemed in their Re- 
deemer the highest standard of justice is reached and all 
its claims virtually satisfied in a life consecrated to his 
service. 

But, strictly speaking, it is not the part or purpose of 
penalty. or punishment to satisfy the claims of Divine jus- 
tice, nor to expiate human guilt. If so, justice would ulti- 
mately be satisfied in the case of fallen angels and the lost 
of earth, and their guilt would eventually be washed away, 
while they would be restored to favor and fellowship with 
God. The satisfaction rendered in the payment of a pen- 
alty is to the Legislator, and not to the law itself. 

Penalty is neither a preventative virtue nor a corrective 
power. It is simply the part of penalty to restrain the law- 
less, and intimidate others, who, were it not for fear of pun- 
ishment, would become transgressors of the law. It is to 
secure the greatest possible amount of obedience, or prevent 
the greatest possible amount of disobedience that penalties 
are attached to laws and then faithfully executed. Pen- 
alty is the end of the law to the offender, if the law be just 
and faithfully administered. 

The penalties annexed to human laws are necessarily arbi- 
trary. They have no fixed and unalterable connection with 
their offenses. But in the Divine government the magni- 
tude of the offense always settles the degree of punishment 
to be inflicted. And the penalty of Divine law, unlike that 
of human law, always means punishment or pardon. 



EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY. 133 

The fact that Christ paid the penalty of the law for us 
does not free us from its further claims upon us any more 
than a term in the penitentiary would ever after release a 
convict from the observance of the law for the violation of 
which he was once condemned. Christ's payment of this 
penalty only releases us from paying it ourselves. This law 
of God has always had its claims upon us and always will 
have; only our salvation is not dependent upon its perfect 
observance, since by the deeds of the law no flesh can be 
justified in his sight. The first often se against any law, 
though its penalty be paid by the offender himself, never re- 
leases him from obligations to future obedience to the same 
law. Our redemption, then, by the Second Adam was not 
from the claims of the Divine law, violated by the first 
Adam, but simply from its curse, or penalty. Christ did 
not so much as redeem us from the fearful consequences of 
the Adamic transgression. And these consequences are 
many and mournful. 

Xeither did the payment of this penalty remove our per- 
sonal guilt. Guilt is expiated only when the shed blood is 
applied to the washing away of our personal stains. Execu- 
tive clemency releases the condemned man from the gallows; 
but it does not release him from the guilt of his crime. The 
redeemed sinner, then, is not necessarily a guiltless sinner; 
but the fully saved soul is cleansed from all its guilt and 
pollution. Even the sacrificial death of Christ does not af- 
fect directly the moral condition of the unsaved sinner. 
This death simply operates in the interests of humanity at 
large, permitting every individual to bring his personal of- 
ferings to the mercy seat through his great High Priest, 



134 A GOVERNMENTAL TRANSACTION. 

receive the remission of all his sins, and be initiated into 
the heavenly family. Grace does not cease to be grace, 
however, because it confers its favors upon certain con- 
ditions. 

But, strictly speaking, all pain is not penalty. Justly in- 
flicted punishment always comes in the form of a penalty, 
either expressed or implied. But unjust punishment either 
has no relation to penalty at all, or it is an unlawful execu- 
tion of penalty. When the innocent are afflicted without a 
cause there can be nothing penal connected with their suf- 
ferings. Such were the physical sufferings of the Savior, 
inflicted by the hands of his enemies during his trial and 
crucifixion. Or, again, many of his bodily pains, much of 
his mental anguish, and more of his soul agonies while mix- 
ing and mingling with sinful men were, beyond questioning, 
mere consequences of his life environments, and not punish- 
ments in the form of penalties enforced against himself or 
those in whose interests he thus suffered, the Just for the un- 
just. 

This redemption was a governmental transaction which vin- 
dicated the Divine law, and sustains the Divine government 
in its personal pardon of the penitent sinner. At the same 
time it was all of free, unmerited mercy. Humanity had no 
claims upon Divinity. God was under no obligations to his 
rebellious creatures. The Savior saw our ruined condition, 
and ran to our relief. He owed the law no debt, and yet, a 
voluntary victim to all the bitter burning soul agonies of Geth- 
semane and Calvary, he passed under its dreadful shadows, 
and in his spiritual death upon the cross redeemed the entire 
race from its inexorable curse. 



CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL DEATH PENAL. 135 

These soul agonies of the Savior, which looked directly 
to the world's redemption from the Adamic penalty were his 
saddest, sorest conflicts with sin. Along this line was devel- 
oped his severest struggles with Satan in the contest for vic- 
tory. 

The awful curse of the law fell with full force upon his 
sinless soul. Its penal power was felt in its inmost depths 
when he exclaimed: My God! My God! Why hast thou 
forsaken me? It was then that he tasted death for every 
man. And heuce he said at once, It is finished — the penal- 
ty is paid, the curse removed, and the race redeemed. The 
spiritual death of the Infinite Creator, though of short dura- 
tion, was infinitely meritorious, and therefore completely 
offset all the demerits of the fallen, finite creature. 

Christ's spiritual death, then, was penal, while his physical 
death was nonpenal. The only penalty the race had incurred 
through the first Adam was spiritual death, and that was evi- 
dently the only way it could have been paid for us by the 
Second Adam. This spiritual death was a penal satisfaction 
to Divine justice; or, rather to God, the Father, the Au- 
thor of that just and holy law, the penalty of wirich fell upon 
our defenseless heads through the first Adam's disobedience. 
But the payment of this penalty by the suffering and forsaken 
Son was the most striking exhibition of the fond Father's 
intense hatred for sin that could possibly have been given. 
It was the most emphatic expression of the Divine detesta- 
tion of sin ever given to the world. 

But if the Aclamic penalty was spiritual death, and Christ 
paid it for all men, why, you ask, are some still spiritual- 
ly dead? We answer: Xot because the Adamic penalty still 



136 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL DEATH VICARIOUS. 

operates against them, but simply because they will to re- 
main in bondage to sin and death — because they choose as 
their eternal portion this spiritual death rather than spiritual 
life. It is as if a redeemed prisoner refused to sign the pa- 
pers releasing him from bondage and accept the proffered 
liberty in the name of his friend and benefactor. Christ re- 
deemed all men, but he forces none to leave the dark dun- 
geons of spiritual death and return to the land of light and 
liberty and love. He also made a sacrificial offering in his 
physical death upon the cross sufficiently meritorious for the 
salvation of the whole world, but he will coerce no one to avail 
himself of the gracious benefits of this sacrificial death. 

The Scriptures plainly teach that Christ's spiritual death 
was a penal infliction for the sin of our race. For he was 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, and the Lord hath 
laid on him the iniquity of us all. This spiritual death 
brought the entire race out from under the law covenant and 
placed it under the covenant of divine grace. 

This spiritual death was vicarious; it was in our room and 
stead — He died as our Substitute. It is a most credible fact 
that the Innocent Christ did voluntarily submit to a spiritual 
death upon the cross in the room and stead of our guilty 
race in order to its redemption from the curse of the law. 
And this spiritual death was such that the Father could and 
did accept it as an adequate satisfaction from his Son, and 
our Substitute, for the original penalty against Adam and 
all his posterity. For if this penalty, as paid by the Substi- 
tute, fell short in the degree and extent of its sufferings, it 
went far beyond in value and merit, because of the infinite 
superiority of the Divine Sufferer. 



IT WAS ALSO EXPIATORY. 137 

This spiritual death was also propitiatory. It appeased 
the Father, it reconciled him to the world; for he is the 
propitiation for the Adamic sin as well as for the personal 
sins of the whole world. This reconciliation of the Father 
was not a change in the Divine character or disposition, but 
a mere change of relation to the race which justified him in 
proposing terms of reconciliation to man, and receiving 
those who would comply with these terms back to his beat- 
ing bosom of paternal love. 

But this death was also expiatory. It removed the Adam- 
ic sin of the world. It loosened the grip of Satan upon the 
race, and it opened wide the prison doors of death to all 
men. This spiritual death was unconditionally universal, 
while his physical death was conditionally universal. But 
it would have cost Christ just as much to have redeemed 
the few as the many. It was human nature that he ran- 
somed from the curse of the law. It would have cost him a 
soul death to have redeemed but one sinner, and the sacri- 
ficial offering of his body to have saved but one soul. These 
two deaths are all-important to man. They have an inti- 
mate relation both to his present interests and his eternal 
destiny. Every Divine act relative to man, from the re- 
demption of the race to the ultimate glorification of the 
just, is hinged in some way upon this dual death of Christ 
upon the cross. 

Christ died spiritually, not as a criminal, but as a Substi- 
tute in the room and stead of criminals. He died physical- 
ly, not as a sinner, but as a Savior in the interests of sin- 
ners. His physical death was an offering for the sins of the 
world. It was an oblation for sin in the interests of all men. 



138 CHRIST WAS OUR SUBSTITUTE. 

It was symbolized by the sacrifice offered annually, on the 
great day of atonement, by the high priest, for all the peo- 
ple. And through this sacrificial death or sin offering of 
the great High Priest of our profession, salvation was pro- 
vided for all men, without any reference to our wills or 
wishes in the matter; but as to whether or not we accept or 
reject this great salvation is left entirely to our freedom of 
choice. 

But, w T e say, Christ was our Substitute. He was only a 
Substitute as a Redeemer, and not as Mediator, Savior, Propn- 
et, Priest, or King. He was the unconditional and univer- 
sal Substitute under the legal covenant, but he is no man's 
Substitute, under the covenant of grace into which he 
brought all men. Redemption was impossible without a 
Substitute; but remember that redemption from the curse or 
penalty of the law for all men does not save a single soul, 
conditionally or otherwise, from the more fearful penalty of 
the grace covenant, which any one may incur simply by 
neglecting the great salvation offered to one and all without 
money and without price. Christ was a Voluntary Substi- 
tute. Hence no violence was done to Divine justice when 
the Just suffered and died for the unjust, that he might re- 
deem them from the curse of the law. But he never has and 
never will die to redeem any one from the eternal death pen- 
alty of the grace covenant who incurs it in a final rejection 
of life and salvation at his merciful hands. 

As our Substitute Christ did not redeem us from the obli- 
gations of obedience to the law, nor from the obligations we 
are under to love God and man, but simply from the curse 
or penalty of the law under which our entire race had fallen. 



THE SECOND ADAM. 139 

Nor does this system of substitution presuppose the punish- 
ment of our personal sins in our Substitute thousands of years 
before we were born. It does not make him a substitute 
for our personal transgressions at all. The admission of a 
Substitute is, if possible, a greater demonstration of the dig- 
nity and majesty of the Divine law than if the offender and 
his posterity had been left to pay the penalty themselves. 
In admitting a Substitute the Father necessarily relaxed, to 
some extent, the vigor of the violated law. There could 
have been no compromise or commutation without some re- 
laxation. 

But the Father was free to accept or reject his Son as a 
Substitute for fallen man, and hence at perfect liberty to fix 
the terms upon which he should become our Substitute — the 
degree and extent of his sufferings, as also the conditions of 
personal pardon, and salvation through his sacrificial death. 
So Christ's redemptive death simply frees all men from the 
direct penalty of the Adamic transgression, while his sacri- 
ficial death offers freedom to all men from the penalties of their 
personal transgressions under the grace covenant upon the 
easy and amicable terms of the Gospel. 

Christ is called the Second Adam because he took the 
place of the first Adam as the Second Representative of his 
race. The oneness in name denotes the identity, in part at 
least, of their life work. The first Adam was capacitated to 
obey the divine law under which he was placed. This is 
conclusive from the conduct of the Second Adam, who, un- 
der much greater disadvantages, rendered the most perfect 
obedience to the same law; thus condemning the Adamic 
sin while in the flesh. 



140 A SUMMARY. 

But the question very naturally suggests itself, Why was 
Adam and Eve favored with a scheme of redemption and 
given a second trial, while the fallen angels were left with- 
out a Redeemer? We answer: because the latter were re- 
sponsible only for themselves, while the former represented 
their entire progeny. The angels were tempted through 
their aspirations of spirit, while our first parents were over- 
come through their animal natures. The angels sinned 
without .a tempter, so far as we know, while man fell a vic- 
tim to the wiles of the devil. The two cases were not par- 
allel. They w T ere very different. 

To summarize this subject, Adam, under the law cove- 
nant, was on trial as humanity's representative. He was 
to stand or fall on his own merit or demerit; and human 
nature, which is a unit and consequently incapable of be- 
ing divided or represented by halves, was to stand or fall 
with him. 

This was the moral law in embryo. It required absolute 
obedience in all things. It demanded at Adam's hands a 
perfect representative character for the nature he bore. Its 
penalty was spiritual death. The sequel shows that Adam 
violated this law, and that humanity fell with him under its 
penalty. Adam was banished, but not expelled. God pro- 
vided means for his restoration. 

Human nature was spiritually dead. The law demanded 
life, but there was no life to give. The penalty hung over 
it like a nightmare of death. All efforts to wake to life were 
helpless and hopeless. It could not pay the debt. The re- 
demption price was beyond its reach. Its short arm was 
powerless to deliver. 



THE TWO COVENANTS. 141 

But man, imprisoned for debt, was allowed to give securi- 
ty. The security paid or assumed the payment of the debt, 
and the prisoner went free. Humanity was imprisoned for 
debt. Mercy allowed it to give security. Christ voluntari- 
ly assumed the payment of the immense debt. His credit 
was good. His promise was all the security Heaven desired. 
The debtor was released at once from the curse of the law. 
But this placed him under obligations to and at the mercy 
of his Security. 

Christ came with a new covenant, went in under the old 
covenant, met the demands of the law in his life of perfect 
obedience, paid the penalty in his spiritual death, and 
brought the entire race out and placed it under the cove- 
nant of grace. He took our nature as its Second Represent- 
ative, and wrought out a perfect representative character 
for it, known as his righteousness. 

But the covenant of grace also has its law. Its require- 
ments are repentance, faith, and love, and its penalty is eter- 
nal death. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 
He that believeth not shall be damned. If any man love not 
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maran atha — 
accursed of the Lord. 

Christ's penal or redemptive death was vicarious. It Avas 
in our room and stead. He tasted death for every man. It 
was also propitiatory. It appeased the offended Father, 
paved the way for a reconciliation between heaven and 
earth, which has brought back millions of prodigal sons and 
daughters to our Father's house as loving, obedient chil- 
dren. It was universal. He gave himself a ransom for all. 
His redemptive death was nonconditional, while his sacri- 



142 THE CUSTOM OF REDEMPTION. 

ficial death was conditional. One was penal, and the other 
was nonpenal. One was conditional, and the other uncon- 
ditional. 

The ancients had a custom of placing a redemption price 
on prisoners of war, and allowing their friends to redeem 
them. We were prisoners of death. Christ redeemed us 
with heaven's own coinage. He threw wide open the pris- 
on doors of death to the whole world, and bade all the pris- 
oners of sin and sorrow walk out into the courts of his 
grace, and enjoy the liberties of purchased redemption for- 
ever and for evermore. 




FINDING OF MOSES. (Delaroche.) 
THE LAW GIVER. 

Read Exoilna ii. 1-10. 




s 



> 



o 

IS 

C3 ^ 




CHAPTER VIII. 
THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 

For ye are not under the laic, but under grace. (Rom. vi. 19.) 

HE Divine attributes are the several perfections 
of the Divine nature which Deity has manifested 
to man. They consist in the different traits of 
Divine character as revealed to the human un- 
derstanding in his words and works. The fixedness of these 
Divine attributes constitutes the immutability of God. He 
never changes, because they are eternally the same. The 
Bible represents God as changing his purposes toward men 
only when they change their relations to the Divine govern- 
ment. The sun did not stand still for Joshua, but what was 
equivalent took place: the earth ceased to revolve on its 
axis. So the change is ever in man, and never in God. 

The advent of the Second Adam was the greatest event 
ever recorded in the annals of human history. He was God's 
greatest gift of grace to fallen man. Jehovah seeking Adam 
and Eve at eventide was the first intimation of the Divine In- 
carnation. But since that time the Promised Seed has ever 
been the center of human hopes and the Benefactor of a 
fallen race. The Old Testament manifestations of the Di- 
vine in visible form were simply so many preludes to the in- 
carnation of the Promised Son. This Son was the unspeak- 
able gift of the Father's grace. 

God the Father as well as God the Son is full of grace 

and truth. He is the Giver of all good, whether merited or 
10 (145) 



146 MANIFESTATIONS OF GRACE. 

unmerited. He withholds no blessings from those who walk 
uprightly before him. He has scattered his gifts of grace 
broadcast over the world. His benevolence is world-wide, 
and his gifts of love are as generous as the gospel of grace 
can make them. The rich provisions of his covenant of 
grace are sufficient to carry all men over the highway of 
holiness up to heaven and to God. 

But the manifestations of Divine grace are not found alone 
in the spiritual realm. Noiseless nature is always adminis- 
tering to the wants of fallen man. Many of her greatest 
gifts are secretly given, and we often forget the Giver be- 
cause the gifts so frequently come unsought, and even un- 
observed, and are as unconsciously appropriated. To the 
same heavenly Father we look, through nature, for all natu- 
ral good; and through Christ for all spiritual blessings. 
But we must seek the spiritual just as certainly as we do 
the natural, or we will never possess them. Only at our 
earnest entreaties do the benedictions of heaven descend 
upon us like sunbeams falling from the orb of day. 

In his atoning work our Second Adam stored up an infi- 
nite fund of grace amply sufficient for the salvation of our 
entire race. And it is the province of the Holy Spirit to 
use this saving grace in the salvation of every sinful soul 
that will surrender and consecrate all to the Savior of sinners. 
The cross of Calvary left life lying in reach of every dead 
soul. Its light always shines upon the unseen side of life's 
benighted pathway. The covenant of grace gives us a plan 
of salvation by which we might all easily be swept into the 
celestial city, if we would only turn the world loose and place 
our affections upon things heavenly and divine. 



GRACE A SUFFICIENT REMEDY. 147 

This covenant of grace places a remedy for sin in the 
reach of every seeking soul. Xo matter how deep the 
stains of human guilt may be, the depths of Divine grace 
are deeper still; for where sin abounds grace does much 
more abound to assist every sinful soul which struggles to 
make its return to God. The Holy Spirit is given by grace 
to track with lightning speed and purifying power the paths 
of sin, and extract its deadly poison from the sin-sick souls 
of sorrowing and suffering humanity. The great Remedial 
System is all of grace. Redemption and salvation are both 
unmerited favors. Wisdom would lead us to ascribe all 
blessings to the grace of God. 

God is no doubt doing all he can, in the nature of the 
case, in order to the holiness and happiness of the entire 
universe. The grace he offers in good faith to the vilest 
sinner is sufficient, if received, to lead him over the Royal 
Road of life to the endless realms of eternal glory. This 
saving grace sustains the majesty of the Divine law, re- 
moves every barrier to man's salvation, and lets the entire 
race down upon the loving heart of the Blessed Savior, 
through whom flows all the riches of a Father's mercy, in 
its fullness and power, to the pardoned penitent whose heart 
is fixed upon God. 

To the first Adam we are indebted for all the sin, and to 
the Second Adam for all the grace there is in the world. 
The evil in us is attributable to nature, and the good to 
grace. The seeds of sin are in the soul at birth, and, if not 
replaced by the good seed of the word of truth, surround- 
ing circumstances will sooner or later call into open action 
its latent powers, which will deluge the soul in crime. The 



148 THE LAW OF LOVE. 

natural tendency of the unregenerate soul is to sin, and 
nothing short of complete submission to Christ, sooner or 
later, can save it from sin's eternal consequences. 

The law of this covenant is love. It demands supreme 
love to God and universal love to mankind. When the ten 
commandments were given to Moses they were placed upon 
two tables of stone, one referring to man's relations to his 
God, and the other to his relations to his fellow-men. But 
when Christ brought us out from under the law covenant, 
with its' paid penalty, and placed us under the grace cov- 
enant, with its proffered mercies, he summed these ten com- 
mandments up in two, one commanding us to love God su- 
premely, and the other to love our fellow-men as we love 
ourselves. And Paul declares that love is the fulfillment 
of the whole law under the Covenant of Grace. 

But love implies repentance and faith. These three are 
inseparably connected. The penalty of this law of love is 
eternal death. Christ never has assumed the payment of this 
penalty for any one, and he never will. This is a fearful 
penalty, we admit; but human nature is finite, while Divine 
nature is infinite; and hence the guilt of man's offenses 
against God is in proportion to the superiority of the Di- 
vine over human nature. There being no proportion in 
point of dignity between the two natures, man's guilt in sin- 
ning against his Maker is, of necessity, infinite, and de- 
serves eternal punishment. This penalty seems to be the 
very essence of all death, the aggregation of all evil, and the 
sum of all suffering. It is endless separation from all that is 
good, and eternal association with all that is evil. It is the 
death of deaths, the fearful and eternal destiny of the damned. 



SALVATION BY GRACE. 149 

Just as soon as Christ brought us out from under the law 
covenant and placed us under the Covenant of Grace, the 
conditions of salvation were set before us, and immediately 
the flood gates of life were lifted up, the clouds of spiritual 
death began to rift away, and the light of life gleamed in 
upon our fallen race; but humanity has ever been too slow 
to discern its beauty and its glory. 

Salvation is only by grace through repentance toward God 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Divine grace is abso- 
lutely essential to the salvation of each and every individual 
sinner who would flee the wrath to come. For, destitute of 
this grace, human nature could never truly repent of sin and 
exercise saving faith in the Son of God. It is difficult 
enough for the righteous, with grace, to avoid sins, both of 
commission and omission, every day they live. The facts 
are as follows: the effects and consequences of sin of them- 
selves will never lead a single soul to evangelical repentance 
and faith. The sinner must, by grace, contemplate the life 
and love of a Sacrificial Savior before he can ever feel a 
godly sorrow for sin and through heart faith be filled with 
Divine love by the effectual workings of the Holy Spirit. 

But this Covenant of Grace is not confined to the few. It 
embraces all classes and conditions of mankind. The civil- 
ized and the uncivilized are alike the objects of its blessings. 
The benefits of Divine grace flow to the heathen nations 
destitute of the Gospel through three distinct channels: the 
teachings of tradition, the light of nature, and the office 
work of the Holy Spirit. So none are left without a chance 
for salvation, and all are left without excuse who reject the 
offers of Divine grace, no matter through what channel they 



150 GRACE TENDERED TO ALL. 

come to the needy soul. To every individual is given a suf- 
ficient amount of grace to eventuate in the salvation of the 
soul if not willfully rejected. Those who are destitute of the 
moral law have the law of grace written in their hearts, and 
hence are a law unto themselves. This seems to be the only 
satisfactory solution of the grace problem, and one in per- 
fect harmony with the Gospel of Christ. Salvation is entirely 
of grace, and yet it is conditioned upon repentance and faith. 
There is no merit upon man's part, and hence all is grace 
upon God's part. 

This Covenant or constitution of grace was given to the 
world soon after the fall, but it has been administered in a 
variety of ways. It finally brought the gospel with its of- 
fered mercies to all men, and it actually gives salvation to 
every one who will accept it on the conditions of repentance 
and faith. Christ is the Mediator of this better covenant, 
and through his mediatorial work alone may men hope to re- 
ceive its benefits and be reconciled to God the Father. 

This Covenant of Grace contains everything essential to 
the well-being and happiness of all men, if they would but 
avail themselves of its rich provisions. Divine Grace is ten- 
dered alike to all mankind. Otherwise it would not be free 
grace. Anything held in reserve for the favorite few is not 
free. We are all under this Covenant of saving grace; and if 
any of us are lost, the fault will lie with us, and not with grace 
or its Author. It is man's choice, and not God's preference, 
that makes the difference between the saint and the sinner. 

Under this Covenant of Grace sins are not atoned for by 
sufferings, neither are they set aside because of obedience to 
the requirements of the moral law, but they are remitted by 



OUR ALL IN ALL. 151 

Sovereign Grace in consequence of repentance and faith. 
Salvation is also by grace, rather than by good works. We 
are not saved even by works of righteousness of our own 
performance. Salvation to eternal life is the gift of God's 
grace. Good works are not the cause, but the fruits of sal- 
vation. A life of obedience and good works are not essen- 
tial to, but the legitimate fruits of, salvation. In other words, 
salvation is not of good works and obedience, but good 
works and obedience are of salvation. We are to be reward- 
ed for our good works and obedience, but we are saved sole- 
ly by grace, which salvation is the gift of God through Je- 
sus Christ our Lord. The sinner must throw himself sub- 
missively at the foot of the cross and receive salvation in this 
divinely appointed way, if he is ever saved at all. 

But our chances under the Covenant of Grace, even in our 
fallen state, are preferable to Adam's under the law cove- 
nant in all his original purity and perfection; for while 
Adam's confirmation depended upon his perfect obedience 
to God's law, ours depends upon our acceptance with all the 
heart of Christ as our All in All. In other words, Adam's 
eternal happiness under the legal covenant depended upon 
his perfect obedience to the most rigid laws of the Divine 
government, while ours is based, under the Xew Covenant, 
upon our personal acceptance of eternal life, as the free and 
unmerited gift of God's grace, through the sacrificial death 
of his well-beloved Son and our Savior. 

I had rather risk my chances of heaven to-day as a sinner 
saved by grace than to be placed on trial just as Adam was, 
with all his holiness of heart and purity of life. For I might 
fall as he fell; but when, as a believer, I fully consecrate my 



152 PARDON FOR THE VILEST. 

all to Jesus and my life is hid with God in Christ, I am safe. 
And, then, there is some consolation to me in the thought 
that we shall be privileged to sing the song of redeeming, re- 
generating, and sanctifying grace wiien we strike our harps 
of gold in the City of our God. 

The Covenant of Grace could not be introduced until all 
the demands of the legal covenant had been virtually met in 
the promised obedient life and penal death of the Second 
Adam, for under the law r covenant sin could not be pardoned 
at all. Its penalty had to be paid, either by the sinner or 
his Substitute. But under the Grace Covenant provisions 
were made for the pardon of the vilest of the vile through the 
sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. So Grace is the Hand 
with which God in good faith offers pardon to all men, and it 
is the Hand with which he actually confers forgiveness upon 
all who will receive it through faith in his Gracious Son. 

Both the first and the Second Adam Avere the sons of God 
in senses that none others ever were, or ever will be. Nei- 
ther of them came upon the stage of action by acts of ordi- 
nary generation. The first was created by, and the Second 
begotten of, God the Father. And yet humanity was just as 
perfect in the Second as in the first Adam. Christ was the 
impersonation of human nature, just as originally found in 
Adam. The first representative, however, transgressed the 
Divine law, wdiile the Second kept it inviolate; and by vir- 
tue of his sacrificial death made pardon possible to Adam 
and all his posterity. 

But Adam's sin corrupted his nature, and hence by natu- 
ral generation he transmitted this depravity to his posterity. 
The Divine honor is harmonized, however, with the fact that 



NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL. 153 

Adam's sin is a source of evil to his descendants when we 
remember that a remedy was provided before a child was born, 
which remedy was ample in its provisions, placing us all on 
better grounds, with fairer chances for eternal happiness and 
heaven. For the evils brought upon our race by the disobe- 
dience and fall of the first Adam were more than counter- 
acted by the obedience and twofold death of the Second 
Adam. It was his perfect obedience in all things which gives 
to the representative character of our Second Adam its 
special charms. By one act of disobedience the undimmed 
luster of this model character would have been dimmed for- 
ever. But without a blot or blur it has shone brighter than 
all other stars in the great galaxy of human characters since 
the creation of man. For if the Divine attributes were ever 
manifested to mankind in all their beauty and their glory, it 
was when the life and character of the Second Adam chal- 
lenged the world's admiration by furnishing it the best mod- 
el of the ages. 

But this remarkable character of Jesus, while perfectly 
natural, was also wholly supernatural in its entire freedom 
from sin, and the transcendent development of all its crown- 
ing virtues; for there must needs be a fitness of things in 
his mediatorial work. The Mediator, to be equal to the oc- 
casion, must bear a suitable relation to both parties con- 
cerned. He must needs be a God-man. The Second Adam 
was made under the law. As our Surety, having arrested 
the immediate execution of its penalty, he met all its obliga- 
tions upon him, and finally went to Calvary, where he re- 
deemed his pledge and his race in his penal and sacrificial 
deaths upon the cruel cross. 



154 A EEAL SACRIFICE. 

Christ rendered perfect obedience to the law under which 
he had been made. This obedience magnified that law by 
proving to mankind that it was just and righteous, and could 
have been kept inviolate by the first Adam, who was right- 
fully punished because of his willful disobedience. But 
while this obedience wrought out a perfect representative 
character for the nature we bear, it did not free us, in the 
least, from the requirements of the Gospel law of love. We 
must love the Father and our fellows for ourselves. The 
Son did not and will not love them in our room and stead. 

In the physical death of Christ we have a real sacrifice for 
sin. It is the great Sacrificial Offering, of which the blood}- 
sacrifices of the Jewish dispensation were the legitimate 
types. But the agonies of this death were not in measure 
equivalent to the merited, miseries of the race in the inter- 
est of which he died. For if so, this would have necessi- 
tated the salvation of all men, on the ground of justice; and 
the Father would have been forced to save the world as a 
matter of equity. This would have closed the door of grace, 
opened the flood gates of uim T ersalism, and saved all the re- 
deemed by debt. 

But the Saving power of the Second Adam is potential; it 
saves to the uttermost all who will to be saved. He becomes 
the end of the law for righteousness to every one who for- 
sakes it to find shelter from all sin under the wings of his 
grace. He left his throne of glory, and on willing wings of 
love and mercy flew to our relief. He ties again the sev- 
ered cords of love, and will finally bring man back to his 
native orbit to revolve eternally around his Central Sun. 

Christ is the great Center of Light to the spiritual uni- 



THE CLEANSING BLOOD. 155 

verse. He is the Life Center of the broad empire of Divine 
love. His incarnation identified the interests of heaven 
and earth as they had never been identified before. The 
analogy between the first and Second Adam, as run in 
Romans, shows most conclusively that through the disobe- 
dience of the first came spiritual death and condemnation, 
while through the obedience of the Second comes spiritual 
life and justification from all sin. And the guiltier the sin- 
ner feels himself to be, the closer will he cling to Christ as 
the only source of saving grace. There is an inseparable 
bond uniting even the good works of the saved with the free 
grace of the Savior. This is as it should be, for while our 
sins incarnated and crucified him, his grace sustains and de- 
fends us amid all the trials and conflicts of life. The Royal 
Road of grace upon which he has placed our feet leads direct- 
ly to glory and to God. 

The cleansing blood of the Slain Lamb belongs to the 
grace rather than to the law covenant. Christ's blood was 
not shed in order to the taking away of the penalty of Ad- 
am's original sin, but rather that our own personal trans- 
gressions might be pardoned and our inherited sin purged 
out. But this precious blood also gave Adam access to a 
throne of Divine grace, where he too might sue for pardon 
in Jesus' name, and receive forgiveness on the very same 
terms with his posterity who have sinned after the similitude 
of the first transgression. For without the shedding of 
blood there could be no remission, and without the applica- 
tion of the blood no cleansing. 

The Covenant of Grace is founded upon the principles of 
eternal truth. Truth is the principal agency used by love 



156 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 

to effect its ends and accomplish its purposes under the 
Grace Covenant. Truth is impregnable. Almighty power 
itself could not break up its immutable foundations; for God 
possesses no distorted attributes of power, enabling him to 
embody absurdities and contradictions in the plan of salva- 
tion, and then give them an actual existence. The chief 
glory of the Infinite is found in the fact that it always works 
-within the sphere of light and love, without the slightest 
tendency to overstep the sacred precincts of eternal truth 
in order to enter the outer darkness of chaotic night. 

This Covenant of Grace recognizes the Sovereignty of God 
and the freedom of man. Its truths harmonize the human 
and Divine agencies, both in the salvation of the sinner and 
the development of Christian character. Hence the lost soul 
is commanded in its seeking to knock at the door of mercy, 
and the saved soul to hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
Such a soul naturally longs to be enlarged and enriched with 
all the fullness of Divine gTace. It seeks a symmetrical de- 
velopment of the Christian character. In doing this it rec- 
ognizes the fact that there are two distinct elements which 
must enter the religious life of every grace-growing* Chris- 
tian — the human and the Divine. And neither of these ele- 
ments should be elevated at the expense of the other. The 
humility of the human must not be magnified above the dig- 
nity of the Divine; and the majesty of the Divine must not 
be allowed to overshadow the importance of the human. 
They must rather coalesce and flow on together in sweetest 
unison and with swiftest pace in order to the most rapid, har- 
monious, and symmetrical development of the Christian char- 
acter. There must be perfect harmony between Divine op- 



THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 157 

erations and human agencies; for the production of virtue 
in man by any extraneous agency independent of his own 
volition is an impossibility lying wholly without the realm of 
reason, and to be found only in the dim regions of a lawless 
imagination. And the human element can no more trans- 
form and develop Christian character, unaided by the Di- 
vine, than the Divine can mold or manufacture such charac- 
ter without the cooperation of the human. 

Human agency and Divine grace go hand in hand through 
our entire Christian experience. God enlightens the head, 
and man sees the truth; God moves the heart, and man wills 
to be saved; God convicts the soul, and man seeks the Sav- 
ior. Here human and Divine agencies flow together, re- 
sulting in the salvation of the sinner. And the Bible no- 
where intimates the existence of the least discord between 
the Sovereignty of God and the freedom of man anywhere 
along the line of one's Christian life. 

This Covenant of Grace recognizes the foreknowledge of 
God. But foreknowledge is not foreordination, and foreor- 
dination is not unconditional. Foreordination does not pre- 
determine and unalterably fix the events of this life without 
any reference to man's agency in the matter. Such foreor- 
dination could not be reconciled with the freedom of the hu- 
man will. The one is not a counter truth, but a contradic- 
tion of the other. And such foreordination would render 
the offers of life and salvation a mockery, and the punish- 
ment of the impenitent the most cruel despotism. Foreor- 
dination and predestination are conditional upon our accept- 
ance or rejection of Christ as our own personal Savior. 

Prophetic utterance is not unconditional predestination. 



158 REVEALED AND DECRETAL WILL. 

It is not predestination at all, and human sophistry cannot 
make it such. True, God sometimes commands, and then 
countermands, but he has never commanded and then exert- 
ed his omnipotent power to prevent obedience upon the part 
of those whom he governs. 

God's revealed and decretal will are ever in harmony. 
His open command and secret purposes never clash. There 
can be no contrariety between the known and the unknown 
desires of an Infinitely perfect God. God does not, through 
his foreknowledge, or in any other way, compel his creatures 
to sin, and then punish them for their transgressions. And 
to intimate such a thing is but to give point, pungency, and 
power to the weapons of infidelity and atheism. 

But for God to necessitate man's willing and doing would 
destroy all distinction between virtue and vice, good and 
evil, and render us nonmoral subjects of the Divine govern- 
ment. A necessary virtue or a necessitated vice is a con- 
tradiction in terms; for that which we cannot possibly avoid 
is neither to be placed to our praise nor to our blame. A 
virtuous act is the offspring of a voluntary exercise of the 
human will in harmony with the Divine will. A vicious act 
is the result of a voluntary volition, out of harmony with the 
will and Word of God. So when the will in its workings 
coalesces with a consciousness of right and a sense of love, 
the emotional blossom ripens into the choicest fruit of gen- 
uine virtue. 

Again, if Divine foreknowledge necessitates moral action 
and volition, there can be no such thing as freedom of thought 
or act in the moral universe. Even the angels and God him- 
self are stripped of the last vestige and shadow of such free- 



ELECTION AND REPROBATION. 159 

dom; because foreknowledge extends to their future thought 
and acts as well as to ours. True, none can call in question 
the Divine Sovereignty and dominion over the moral world, 
but this does not imply absolute despotism over the human 
will. 

God is free to will and act without being compelled by 
any power back of his own. And such a God could certain- 
ly create a being with a self-acting will, and let him run b}^ 
his own self-sustained activities. True, man cannot create 
perpetual motion; but God has displayed it in all the spheres 
scattered over his vast universe. He does not have to wind 
up the solar systems annually, nor strengthen occasionally 
the spring upon which the Pleaides ride through the distant 
heavens. 

This Covenant of Grace, strange as it may seem, also em- 
bodies the doctrine of election and reprobation. God, in 
keeping with his foreknowledge, does elect, choose, or 
select all who believe in Jesus to eternal life. He also rep- 
robates to eternal death those who finally reject him. But 
neither his election nor reprobation is unconditional; and 
if from eternity they were based upon his foreknowledge as 
to who would and who would not comply with the conditions 
of salvation, his actual election and reprobation, after all, 
are in time and not in eternity. The Divine purpose to save 
souls is always conditioned upon their acceptance of salva- 
tion, and so his purpose to punish the finally impenitent is 
based upon their personal rejection of pardon in the name of 
Christ. 

Election could not be sovereign, or unconditional, and 
leave man free to choose between life and death, heaven and 



160 GOD A REASONABLE BEING. 

hell. God's foreknowledge is never an absolutely arbitrary 
act of sovereignty, either of grace or of wrath. Election or 
reprobation, then, as the case may be, is always conditioned 
upon the thing foreknown, and never on the foreknowledge 
itself. Hence it is not the Divine foreknowledge that fixes 
our weal or woe, but the thing foreknown — our acceptance 
or rejection of Christ. His foreknowledge does not affect 
our actions at all, but our actions do necessarily affect his 
foreknowledge; for otherwise he would not be infinite in 
knowledge. Divine knowledge along this line must be the 
result of human thoughts and actions. And the election of 
the true believer to eternal life implies the reprobation of 
the unbeliever to eternal death. 

God is a reasonable Being. If he chooses one and rejects 
another, it is for reasons both rational and right. Our elec- 
tion is hinged upon foreseen faith, and our rejection is the 
result of unbelief. God uses means of grace well calculated 
to lead all to Christ, but he coerces none into the kingdom. 
He will not interfere w T ith the freedom of the human will. 
The right of choice is indispensable to man's free agency. And 
both the moral code and the spiritual system of the Grace 
Covenant are based upon man's right to choose between the 
good and the evil, between life and death, between heaven 
and hell. Deprive him of this God-given right, and you leave 
moral ethics and spiritual faith without a firm foundation 
upon which to rest. 

Eternal life is the gift of God's grace. Even the ability 
to believe is of grace. It is the province of God's grace to 
work in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure; 
but it is ours to will and to do as we are aided by Divine 



UNDER THE OLD DISPENSATION. 161 

grace, or to will not and do not if we choose to reject the of- 
fers of this grace. In other words, it is not the province of 
Divine grace to ignore man's free agency or destroy his ac- 
countability to God. It only proposes to aid those who 
willingly accept Divine assistance along the line which leads 
to life eternal. JSTone are reprobated who do not place them- 
selves beyond the possibility of election by their own nn- 
trammeled volitions and actions, and none are elected who 
do not, of their own free will, compl} 7 with the conditions of 
life and salvation. 

But though under grace, we are amenable to a law that 
condemns all and justifies none. The law could neither par- 
don nor change the sinner. And herein a once faultless cov- 
enant became imperfect, not being adapted to the work of 
reclaiming a fallen race. Hence the introduction of a new 
and Better Covenant, in perfect harmony with the wants of 
man in his fallen, sinful state. 

Under the old dispensation the functions of the Levitical 
priesthood spent their forces in ritualistic services, sacrifices, 
sanctifications, and atonements, all of which were merely 
symbolical of the Divine functions of the Messianic Priest- 
hood in its sacrificial offering under the new dispensation in 
order to the salvation of all who would believe on the Son 
of God. 

The old Jewish dispensation, with its imposing rites, splen- 
did symbols, and sublime services, was preliminary to the 
new Gospel dispensation with its simple, but significant cer- 
emonies and ordinances. The old dispensation was elemen- 
tary; the new is ultimate. This grace dispensation is the 

Gospel power of God unto salvation to every one who fixes 
11 



162 



A MASSIVE BRIDGE. 



his faith upon the firm foundation — the eternal Rock of 
Ages. 

So the law covenant was not actually supplanted by the 
Covenant of Grace until the Mighty Deliverer came in the 
plenitude of his omnipotent power and sent devil and* de- 
mons howling back down to the lowest depths of perdition, 
and threw a massive bridge across the awful gulf which sepa- 
rated earth and heaven, while angels shouted glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men. 




CHAPTER IX. 

THE GEEAT KEMEDIAL SYSTEM. 

Christ's atoning blood is the only remedy for sin. 

HE great Remedial System is very comprehensive. 
It embraces redemption, regeneration, sanctifica- 
tion, and the resurrection and reunion of soul and 
body in their glorified state. It is the very em- 
bodiment of Divine wisdom, the offspring of Divine love, 
and the outgrowth of grace Divine. Infinite wisdom attends 
all its conquests; and infinite power breaks the iron fetters 
of sin, and frees its subjects from the guilt and guidance as 
w T ell as from the darkness and dominion of death. 

This System embraces both the old and the new, the cere- 
monial and the spiritual dispensations. The old dispensa- 
tion was largely temporal, and hence its manifestations were 
principally through the medium of sight; but the new dis- 
pensation is preeminently spiritual, and consequently its 
methods of communication are chiefly through the medium 
of faith. Under the old dispensation temporal wants were 
most keenly felt, and hence temporal benefits most earnest- 
ly sought; but under the new dispensation spiritual good is 
in the ascendency, and consequently spiritual blessings are 
prized more highly. Under the first dispensation the mani- 
festations of mercy were mainly of a temporal character, and 
confined closely to the Jews; but under the reign of the 

second dispensation mercy's door opens oftenest into the 

(163) 



164 SPIRITUAL BIRTH AND BAPTISM. 

great storehouse of God's spiritual and eternal blessings, ten- 
dered alike to Jew and Gentile. 

The primary design of this spiritual dispensation is to 
deliver man from his spiritual bondage to sin and death 
through a spiritual birth and baptism which restore him to 
life and liberty and affectionate obedience to the true and 
living God. But the sinner must recognize his need of spir- 
itual blessings before he can properly appreciate the Giver 
of all spiritual good. And just in proportion as one recog- 
nizes his lost and ruined condition, without Christ, will he 
love and reverence the God who gives him spiritual deliver- 
ance from the power and dominion of sin and death. But 
nothing short of a deep conviction of sin in the soul will 
ever cause a sinner properly to appreciate spiritual bene- 
dictions, and to love with the whole heart his Spiritual De- 
liverer. 

This great Remedial System includes both the scheme of 
redemption and the plan of salvation. It goes farther, and 
looks to our resurrection and glorification. In other words, 
it begins with the redemption of the race from the Adamic 
penalty, and compasses the eternal redemption of both the 
souls and bodies of the just in heaven. ]STo wonder this Sys- 
tem commands the admiration of the head and conquers the 
affections of the heart of those lost in sin, but longing for 
eternal deliverance. 

This great Remedial System is radiant with the power of 
revealed truth. It embraces both the redemptive and resto- 
rative features of Christ's atoning work, maintains the hon- 
or of the Divine law, saves the penitent sinner, and confirms 
the poorest saint in a state of holy obedience and happy al- 



DIVERSITY IN UNITY. 165 

legiance to God. It ever follows fallen man with the offers 
of pardon for penitence, and life for love. It places the de- 
cisions of the head in harmony with the affections of the 
heart. It affects ns in thought and word and act, and pre- 
pares us for heaven while yet on earth. 

Diversity in unity is a law of the spiritual no less than of 
the natural realm. Truth, like light, descends from heaven 
as a unit, but is seen in different colors as it falls upon a di- 
versity of objects. There are three primary facts embodied 
in the great Remedial System which constitute it a trinity in 
unity. These facts are the redemption of the race, the res- 
toration of believers, and the resurrection of the just. Des- 
titute of either of these fundamental facts, salvation would 
be neither full nor final. Xo other System of Salvation 
could possibly secure to the souls and bodies of its saved 
the perpetuity and powers of an endless life. Here is a well- 
balanced, symmetrical, magnificent unity, embracing the 
three cardinal features of the grandest System of Salvation 
known to men or angels in the vast universe of God. 

In man's original state of life he was in perfect harmony 
with his God. The human will was lost in the Divine; and 
this was the highest type of human liberty. So perfectly 
harmonious were the relations existing between man and his 
]\laker that they held sweet and constant communion with 
each other, and this communion was continued life to the 
soul. 

The Divine laws were all legislations of love. Life was 
conditioned upon obedience to them, while disobedience 
was the gateway to death. These laws were inexorable. 
They permitted no transgression and pardoned no trans- 



166 CHRIST'S DUAL DEATH. 

gressor. They were more sacred than life itself. Man was 
created with ability to obey all these laws. Obedience to 
one never involved disobedience to any other, but the vio- 
lation of one was virtually the transgression of all. He who 
offended in the least was guilty of the whole. So it is to- 
day. Hence there is no salvation through obedience to the 
law, which no fallen creature is able to keep perfectly. Our 
only hope lies in the fact that Christ's merits rise infinitely 
above the demands of the law. 

The introduction of sin into the human soul is implied in 
the mission of Christ among men. The series of remedial 
agencies employed to eradicate it shows how deep-seated, 
dangerous, and deadly it has proven to be to the human fam- 
ily o Its stains will blot and blur the records from the fall of 
our first Adam to the close of human history. 

Christ's dual death upon the Cross was no mere expedient 
designed to meet an unexpected emergency, but a funda- 
mental part of the great Remedial System, the Divine pur- 
pose of which was to redeem and save a lost and ruined 
race. God foresaw the fall of our first parents, and pro- 
vided for their restoration to the Divine favor. Christ's 
mediatorial work is coexistent with the sins of men. He 
was verily a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

When the three great dispensations of Law, Prophec}', 
and Grace were to be united in one — Moses, Elijah, and 
Christ, their respective representatives, celebrated the union 
on Mount Tabor in one of the grandest scenes the world has 
ever witnessed. And the basis of this wonderful union and 
the subject of their transcendent theme was the crucifixion 
of the Son of God, and the glory that should folio w. 



THIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH. 167 

Jesus had not only covenanted to pay the Adamic pen- 
alty in his spiritual death, but he had also promised to expi- 
ate the personal guilt of the penitent and believing souls of 
all the ages through his sacrificial death upon the cross of 
Calvary. So his physical death was not merely the meeting 
of the Divine appointment, made to all men, but it was also 
a Sacrificial Offering for the personal cleansing of all who 
will come to God the Father through God the Son. This 
sacrificial, like his penal, death was doubtless of his own 
choice. It was a voluntary offering upon his part of his body 
as a living sacrifice for the sins of all who would believe on 
his name. He said: I lay down my life; and I take it up 
again. Xo man had the power to take it from him against 
his own will. 

This Sacrificial Death of Christ was absolutely necessary 
to the salvation of redeemed sinners. The blood idea runs 
through both the Old and the Xew Testaments. And with- 
out the shedding of blood there could be no remission of 
sins, no removal of personal guilt. But this Sacrifice for 
Sins serves as a standing oblation, through which the peni- 
tent souls of all ages may obtain remission from the Father 
of Mercies; for it was an offering made once for all who 
would come to the Father by the Son, and there is none 
other by whom any may come. There is no other name giv- 
en under heaven whereby we may be saved. Through this 
Sacrificial Death provisions were made in the Divine econ- 
omy of grace by which men might be saved, as they would 
come into being, during all the succeeding ages in the world's 
history, even down to the end of time. 

The Jewish system of sacrifices evidently foreshadowed 



168 A GLORIOUS REALITY. 

this Sacrificial Death of Christ for sinners. It derived all its 
significance from this fact; for otherwise it would have been 
a mere superstition, unworthy the Divine sanction. The 
Sacrificial Lamb slain upon Calvary was an Expiatory Of- 
fering, well adapted to procure the pardon of all our person- 
al transgressions, and sufficiently meritorious to wash away 
the guilt of all our sins. ■ 

This Sacrificial Death of a Sinless Savior is not a mere 
figure, or liturgical form, but a grand and glorious reality. 
The Son of God was incarnated that he might redeem fallen 
man from the curse of the law, and bring him back into 
union and communion with God the Father. In his Re- 
demptive Death he removed the last legal barrier to the ex- 
ercise of Divine Clemency, and in his Sacrificial Offering 
he opened up a new and living way by which a fallen race 
might approach the Father of Mercies. Hence God is just, 
though the Justifier of the vilest of the vile who come to him 
through the recognized merits of a Sin-offering Savior. 

This Sacrificial Death of Christ was a prerequisite to re- 
generation, for without it there could be no remission of sins 
— no salvation for sinners. But while it secures the possi- 
bility of pardon to all men, it does not insure salvation to a 
single soul. The great fountain of spiritual waters, closed 
up by the fall of the first Adam, was simply reopened to a 
ruined race by the Sin-offering of the Second Adam, that all 
who would might come and drink and live for evermore. 

This theory of the dual death of Christ upon the cross 
meets all the exigencies in the case. It sustains the Divine 
government, redeems a ruined race, reconciles an Offended 
Father, restores the repentant and trusting soul to its pris- 



GOD IS MERCIFUL. 169 

tine purity, and inseparably unites the fully saved of earth 
with the Savior from heaven. It propitiates the Father in a 
sense which enables him to pardon the guilty without pun- 
ishment, and to save the lost, though destitute of personal 
merit, through the all-prevailing merits of Jesus Christ, the 
Sun and Center of this great Remedial System. 

God is merciful; but mercy is not a Divine attribute. It 
is simply the bestowment of favor where punishment is the 
just desert. Any being with an opportunity may exercise 
mercy if not a fiend; but none are so merciful as our God. 
But God's mercy is as inflexible as his justice. The one 
cannot triumph over the other. They must go hand in hand 
through all the workings of this great Remedial System. 
The Father of Mercies would willingly have pardoned 
Adam's sin at a word without the sufferings and death of a 
Substitute, but as the Sovereign of the Universe his adminis- 
trative justice stood in the way, and he could not permit the 
violation of his law with impunity. Hence mercy had to 
wait her turn till justice was satisfied. There is demerit in 
sin which demands punishment, and Divine justice must 
mete out punishment or its equivalent to the sinner or his 
Substitute in some way before the pleadings of mercy can be 
heard and answered. And yet it is the union of justice and 
mercy which meet together at the cross that constitutes the 
grandeur and glory of this great Remedial System. 

Divine justice is seen in the declaration that the penalty 
of sin is the death of the soul, for it was the soul and not the 
body that sinned. But Divine mercy is manifested in the fact 
that the Father proposes to pardon every sinner who recog- 
nizes Christ as his Substitute and accepts him as his Savior. 



170 CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS NOT PUNITIVE. 

Christ, having once assumed Adam's place as the Second 
Representative of his race, was voluntarily under a law 
which demanded of him all that it could have required at 
Adam's hands, whether of obedience to its precepts or the 
payment of its penalty. For he came not to destroy, but to 
amend and fulfill the law. Hence his penal soul sufferings 
were all voluntary, not punitive. In fact, he voluntarily sub- 
mitted to all the sufferings of life and death. So it may truth- 
fully be asserted that the Father inflicted no direct punishment 
upon his Son. It is true he suffered wicked men, not as his 
own, but as Satan's executioners, to crucify the Savior of the 
world; but not contrary to the will and wishes of the Crucified 
One. So all the punishment inflicted upon Christ w T as from 
a human rather than from a Divine hand, if we understand 
what it takes to constitute punishment. But, again, with 
God the end never justifies the means. The means must be 
riofht in themselves before he can use them to the accom- 
plishment of his purposes. Moral evil is never allowable 
with him that good may follow. Hence we are safe in say- 
ing that the Father did not punish his obedient Son that 
good might accrue to a disobedient race. 

All sufferings are not punitive. This world is not a place of 
punitive fires and penal woes. Human sufferings are large- 
ly the result of Fatherly correction and Divine discipline. 
Whom the Lord loveth he also chasteneth; and scourg f eth 
every son and daughter that he receiveth. Even sincere 
compassion sometimes wrings the heart with the most intense 
agonies, but this is not necessarily a suffering for sin. It is 
an act, a lesson of mercy, teaching us to mitigate, as much, 
as possible, the manifold miseries of our fellow-creatures. 



REASON AND REVELATION. 171 

Christ was, in his soul agonies upon the cross, a Penal 
Suffering Savior, and in his sacrificial death a Sin Ottering for 
the world. He obeyed the precepts and paid the penalty 
of the Adamic law, in our room and stead, as the Second 
Representative of our race. He then gave life for life in the 
presentation of his body as a living sacrifice for the personal 
sins of the world; and hence he has a supreme right to the 
service of every head and the homage of every heart in the 
interests of which he suffered and died. 

This is but a reasonable deduction from the teachings of 
Revelation. But reason and Revelation run together 
throughout this entire S} 7 stem. They can nowhere be sep- 
arated, because reason finds its internal existence in Reve- 
lation, and Revelation its external form in reason. The per- 
fection of each seems to be centered in the vital union and 
glory of both. The one cannot be exalted at the expense of 
the other, nor can either be debased without dishonoring 
both. They are as inseparable as they are invulnerable and 
eternal. They will march on, hand in hand and heart re- 
sponding to heart, with the flight of endless ages. 

~No Redeemer, no redemption; no Savior, no salvation. 
Reformation is not restoration. There is a vast difference 
between a reformed character and a fully saved soul. The 
one gives us only a change of conduct; the other, a change 
of nature. A moral reform develops our moral faculties, 
while a spiritual birth and baptism gives spiritual life abun- 
dantly to the dead soul. A man is slightly convicted. He 
recognizes the fact that his life is not w 7 hat it ought to be. 
The world has a strong hold upon him. Heaven is far in 
the distance to him, and almost eclipsed by the earth. A 



172 RESTORATION. 

compromise is instituted. A class of sins are set aside, mor- 
al habits are substituted, and reformation of character is the 
only result. There is resolution and illumination of the 
head, but no regeneration, no relifing of the soul. The 
true Light has not yet dawned upon the dead soul, the seat 
of sin, and the man is a sinner still. Another man is deeply 
convicted. He feels a pressing need of salvation, a deep 
sense of sin, in his lost soul. Eternity is intensely dark. 
The storm rages within and without. He surrenders to 
Christ. The earth loses its charms. Heaven smiles upon 
him as he falls in humble submission at the foot of the cross, 
and the result is complete restoration. Hope born of de- 
spair, light chasing away the darkness, and life w T alking in 
the footprints of death, and the sinner has become a saint, 
destined at length to walk the golden-paved streets of the 
~New Jerusalem forever and for evermore. 

Restoration, then, is a great work, possibly greater than 
redemption itself. Its accomplishment lies beyond the agen- 
cy of men and angels. ]^one but the Holy Spirit can quick- 
en the dead soul into life, and vitalize all its faculties and 
functions and its devotions to the one only true and living 
God. This is a work of which we will be perfectly conscious. 
The restored soul knows that it has passed from death unto 
life. It knows that it is in possession of life eternal; for 
restoration is to the soul as sight to the blind, liberty to the 
captive, or life to the dead. 

This restoration is a work in which w T e not only receive 
new life, but also undergo a renewal of our fallen, sinful na- 
ture, which makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. The 
word implies a reproduction, a relifing, and a relikenessing 



A BOND OF SYMPATHY. 173 

of the soul. This restoration produces the most sudden and 
surprising changes in the desires and purposes of the human 
heart, and affects most marvelously the action and destiny 
of human life. Certainly, then, the restored are made more 
than conscious of this wonderful transformation of heart and 
life in the acts of restoration through the agency of the 
Holy Spirit. 

The relations which Christ sustains to the restored are 
many and varied. He is our Representative, Redeemer, Me- 
diator, Prophet, Priest, and King. He is our Savior, 
Sanctifier, Shepherd, Teacher, Exemplar, Intercessor, and 
Elder Brother. He sustains each of the above important 
and endearing relations to all the saints, and he is to us in 
these varied relations the fountain of all good; for the treas- 
ures of immensity are at his disposal, the resources of the 
universe are at his command. 

There is a bond of sympathy between Christ and his true 
followers which ever draws the affectionate heart heavenward. 
From him we receive all our spiritual life just as the branch 
gets its life from the vine of which it is a member. The 
scion lives by partaking of the substance of the stock into 
which it is grafted. Its very nature and fruitage are both 
changed by this transfer from one tree to another. So it is 
with the saint — the complete transfer from Satan to the Sav- 
ior changes the sinner's very nature, and causes him to 
bear fruit entirely different from what he bore before, and he 
now lives by partaking of the life substance of the blessed 
Savior, into whom he has been grafted by the grace of God. 

The great Remedial System is not being operated exclu- 
sive of Divine agency. God has not intrusted its manage- 



174 THE HOLY SPIRIT'S SUPERVISION. 

ment entirely to the weakness or wisdom of human instru- 
mentality. The supernatural has always been associated 
with the workings of this wonderful System. Moses not 
only wielded a mighty miraculous power, superior to the 
sorceries of the magicians, but a power which was also in 
deadly hostility to all idolatrous worship. The miracles 
he wrought were not only intended to destroy the various 
forms of Egyptian idolatry; they were also designed to 
empty men's minds of all false religious impressions, 
that they might be filled with the true ideas of the Liv- 
ing God. 

The Holy Spirit has also the direct supervision of the en- 
tire workings of the gospel plan of salvation. He evidently 
gives efficiency to the means of grace employed, both in 
originating and perpetuating spiritual life in the saved soul. 
In conviction it is the Spirit enlightening and quickening 
the dead soul of the lost sinner; in regeneration it is the 
Spirit kindling in the heart the vital spark of spiritual life; 
in sanctification it is the Spirit abiding within us, and mov- 
ing us both to will and to clo of his own good pleasure; and 
in our ultimate glorification it will be the office work of the 
Holy Spirit to consummate the eternal happiness of the 
saints in the reunion of their glorified souls and bodies, 
preparatory to their final transfer from earth to heaven. 
And, dominated by the Spirit, in the future state the fash- 
ion of the body will neither embarrass the functions nor im- 
pede the progress of the soul in the exercise of its ever-ex- 
panding powers, but, guided wholly by the Spirit, the soul's 
facilities for the acquisition of knowledge will be wonderful- 
ly enhanced, and the unfettered intellect, rising far above 



MAN'S IMMORTALITY. 175 

all error, will career with steady wing through endless realms 
of light and truth. 

Thank God, this transitory life is not the entirety of man's 
existence. Death cannot be the consummation of his high- 
est hopes and endless aspirations, nor the grave his eternal 
resting place. Immortality, as a dominant idea, has de- 
scended down the stream of time, from parent to posterity, 
since its impartation to the first pair in Paradise, and traces 
of its continued existence are visible in the language and 
literature of all ages and all people. 

The nations have seen upon the face of every mysterious 
providence sweeping over the earth the evidence of man's 
immortality. Men have everywhere shrunk from the idea 
of investing the tomb with endless darkness and surrender- 
ing themselves to an eternal sleep. We stand upon the 
threshold of an endless future, confident of an eternal ex- 
istence. The night of death has never been a starless one 
to the world. Its anticipated morning is ever breaking in 
floods of light upon the darkness of the tomb, and hanging 
the rainbow of hope over the sleeping dust of all our saint- 
ed dead. And we can well afford to refer all the mysteries 
and difficulties of the resurrection to the omnipotent power 
of God for an ample solution, because he hath both raised 
up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 

In the resurrection of the first fruits of them that sleep 
the pencilings of divine glory penetrated the deepest gloom 
that surrounds the grave, and left the bow of hope hanging 
upon the brow and blushing upon the cheek of the retreat- 
ing storm king, mantled in his dark pavilions of death. 

Christian assurance is a cardinal doctrine of this great 



176 PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS. 

Remedial System. We know that Ave are in a saved state 
when we have believed with the whole heart unto righteous- 
ness. Such faith is the necessary foundation of that hope 
which anchors the soul to that within the veil, and makes us 
perfectly conscious of our acceptance with God. God is 
the center of the spiritual universe, around which all spirit- 
ual beings revolve with the harmony of the spheres as they 
roll around their common central sun, singing, without a 
discordant note, their great Creator's praise. 

The preservation of the saints is clearly taught in God's 
Word. l\o sanctified soul will ever be lost. All are con- 
firmed in a state of holiness when they obtain it. The saints 
choose God, and he accepts them, not for time indefinite but 
for an endless eternity. Their spiritual lives are hid with 
Christ in God. Deity itself is the Divine urn in which every 
sanctified soul is deposited for safe-keeping during the flight 
of time and throughout boundless eternity. They are all 
kejDt by the power of God through faith unto eternal salva- 
tion. Even the fall of Adam and the angels does not prove 
the apostasy of a single saint; for if so, it would necessarily 
prove the apostasy of all saints. The Royal Witness within 
constantly assures us that we are ever the subjects of Divine 
love and heirs to an endless inheritance at God's right-hand in 
heaven. 

Christ is the Sun and Center of this great Remedial Sys- 
tem of redeeming, saving, and sanctifying grace. His Gos- 
pel lifts the sinful soul out of the dim lights of time into the 
regions of eternal truth beyond. The simple but sublime 
doctrines he taught flood the world with the light and liber- 
ty of redeeming love and saving grace. The redemption he 



CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 177 

purchased freed the world from the fearful penalty of the 
Adamic transgression, and the salvation he sends to the sin- 
ner removes the gloomy forebodings hanging around the 
habitations of dark despair, and gives the souls of the saints 
a steadfast assurance which cannot be shaken by the doubts 
nor overshadowed by the darkness of endless death. 

Christian perfection is another important tenet in the great 
Remedial System. This perfection implies the highest ob- 
tainment and attainment in the divine life, under the surround- 
ing circumstances. It does not include human perfection; 
for the world has known but one perfect human being since 
the fall of Adam and Eve, and that was the sinless Savior, 
in whose mouth there was found no guile. Neither does it 
imply angelic perfection, for that belongs to the angels only; 
for man in his original perfection was made a little lower than 
the angels. Much less, then, does it imply infinite or absolute 
perfection, which belongs to God alone ; for the conduct of an- 
gels is as folly in his sight. We are perfect as God is perfect 
only when we are perfect in our respective spheres of life. 

As to character, Christian perfection is that maturity of 
growth in grace which is attainable in this life. It consists 
in the purest types of Christian character found in the 
Church militant, and yet it falls far below that ripeness of 
glory which awaits the saints in the life to come. It implies 
strong faith, deep humility, constant self-denial, childlike 
resignation to the Divine will, a lively hope for the future, 
universal love for our fellows, and supreme love to God. 
To sum it all up in two words, Christian perfection is " per- 
fect love," amply developed, a love that casteth out all fear, 

and fulfilleth the whole law of God. To be a perfect Chris- 

12 



178 CHRIST IS THE MODEL. 

tian is to take the cup of salvation and be filled with all the 
fullness of God; to receive and appropriate all the immuni- 
ties, blessings, and privileges vouchsafed to us through the 
Gospel of Christ; the infinite fullness which God has stored 
up in the great Remedial System for his faithful followers as 
they pass over the Royal Road through grace to glory. 

Christ is the model in which this perfection centered — the 
foundation from which it flows — the channel through which 
it rolls its cargo of blessings into the hearts and homes of 
multiplied millions of the children of men. To rank among 
perfect Christians, one must by faith receive so much of the 
truth and experience such manifestations of the Spirit as 
shall shed abroad in his heart that " perfect love " which cast- 
eth out all slavish fear and filleth him with the meek and 
lowly spirit of the blessed Savior. 

The lamp of the perfect Christian always burns brightly. 
It is a burning and a shining light. It lets its beams of be- 
nevolent light fall upon all within its reach; though, like 
the Father of lights, who sends his sunshine upon all flesh, 
its warmest, softest, sweetest rays fall into the hearts and 
homes of the household of faith. 




AT-ONE-MENT. 



c 



"And not only so, but we also joy in God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
we have now received the atonement." 
(Rom. v. 11.) 




CIIAPTEE X. 

THE ATONEMENT. 

By whom we have note received the atonement. (Roni. v. 11.) 

TONEMENT is a compound word — at-one-ment 
— and signifies the reconciliation of parties be- 
tween whom there has been an estrangement. It 
points to a change from enmity to friendship, 
from hatred to love. The word in its unlimited meaning 
evidently embraces the reconcilation of both the offended and 
the offending parties, and hence includes both the redemptive 
and restorative work of Christ. 

The Hebrew word for atonement means to cover, a cover- 
ing for or an expiation of sin. 

The Greek word translated atonement signifies an agree- 
ment or conciliation of parties between whom there has been 
a separation or estrangement. This word occurs but once 
in the New Testament Scriptures, and it evidently refers 
to man's reconciliation to his Maker, through the personal 
appropriation of Christ's atoning work. 

Then the atonement has two distinct features: the redemp- 
tive and the restorative. The redemptive feature propitiated 
or appeased the Father, while the restorative feature both 
reconciles and saves the sinner. The propitiation of an of- 
fended God necessarily antedates the reconciliation of offend- 
ing man. The Son in his dual death propitiated the Father 

(181) 



182 THE TWOFOLD FEATUEE. 

for the sins of the whole world. It was the Dying Deliverer 
who appeased the Father, but it is the Living Christ who 
saves the sinner. 

This twofold feature of the atonement presents it to the 
world rich in abounding grace and radiant with divine glory. 
It unlocks the gate of life, closed by the fall, and opens the 
door of mercy leading into the very courts of heaven. 
Through this atoning work of the Son, the mercy of the Fa- 
ther flowed down upon a lost and ruined world in all the 
plenitude of its pardoning power. Then this atonement was 
the rich provision of divine love. It was the affectionate of- 
fering of a heavenly Father. It w T as sweet Charity's volun- 
tary contribution from heaven to earth. 

In order to the redemption of our race and the salvation of 
sinners there was not merely a relative but an absolute neces- 
sity for the atonement made by Christ. True, Mercy held the 
cup of salvation in her hands; but justice had to be satisfied 
before a single soul could be saved from that death that 
never dies. Redemption, the spiritual birth, and the spirit- 
ual baptism were alike indispensable to the restoration of 
spiritual life and the Divine likeness to the lost soul. But 
the mere fact that such an atonement was made ought to be 
sufficient proof of its absolute necessity. 

Adam was the representative of his race under the law 
covenant. The penalty of that covenant was spiritual death. 
Adam incurred the penalty through a transgression of the 
law. He represented human nature as a unit, and hence hu- 
manity fell, with his fall, under the curse or penalty of the 
law which he had violated. Adam's offense was not the 
trivial thing some suppose it to have been. It was open re- 



PENALTY AND CONSEQUENCE. 183 

bellion against the Divine Authority, in the face of the most 
sacred obligations to gratitude, love, and obedience. The 
external act was the eating of the apple, but the seat of the 
sin lay deep down in the soul. The seed of all the sin ever 
sown by Satan in human hearts was embodied in the princi- 
ple which actuated Adam in this transgression of the divine 
law. The penalty, we suppose, was simply proportionate to 
the magnitude of the offense; and the prime object of its 
severity was doubtless the prevention of disobedience. 

Adam could have obeyed the law. He had every attri- 
bute of a free moral agent. He knew his duty well. It had 
been plainly set before him. He was not left to grope his 
way in uncertainty. Light flowed in upon his pathway 
through communion with his Godlike the rays of a cloudless 
sun. So, back of the overt act of eating the apple, we find 
the actual sin of the soul. 

]S~or is it strange that God suffered man to be tempted, 
since temptation was essential to his trial as a probationer. 
With no inducement to disobedience there could have been 
no merit in nor reward for obedience. But the tempta- 
tion was not irresistible; for an irresistible temptation, 
like no temptation at all, would destroy man's accounta- 
bility and disgrace the divine government. Life and death 
as alternatives are placed before every free moral agent 
just as they were before Adam, with power to accept either 
one he chooses. 

But Adam's sin was twofold in its effects. In disobeying 
God he obeyed the devil. The penalty was spiritual death; 
the consequence, human depravity. The payment of the one 
did not remove the other. Redemption freed from the pen- 



184 SUBSTITUTION A GOLDEN LINK. 

alty, restoration delivers us from this fearful consequence of 
the Aclamic transgression. 

Adam's sin left him and his posterity under the curse 
or condemnation of the broken law; but Christ came as 
a Second Representative for the race under the same law 
as a man, and yet infinitely above that law as a Divine Be- 
ing. He paid the penalty of the Adamic law in his spiritual 
death upon the cross, which brought the entire race out from 
under the law covenant and placed it at once under the Cov- 
enant of Grace. He purchased for man a universal and 
never-ending redemption from the death penalty of the 
Adamic transgression. 

Christ came as a Substitute for the first Adam, made un- 
der the same law, given the same nature, called by the same 
name, and representing the same race. This law had claims 
against the nature represented by its transgressor; and the 
satisfaction of this violated law demanded a Victim by whom 
its penalty could be paid in full and its tenets be magnified 
and made honorable in the sight of men and angels. Hence 
the Son of God became also a Substitute for the race at large 
in his penal or spiritual death upon the cross. So we see the 
payment of this penalty was in the interests of the divine 
government and for the benefit of fallen humanity. 

Substitution is one of the golden links in the chain of 
evangelical truth which presents us a glorious scheme of hu- 
man redemption, harmonious and perfect in all its parts and 
powers. The race had incurred a penalty from which it 
could be released only by the admission of a suitable Substi- 
tute. Christ took our place under the law covenant, paid its 
death penalty for us, suffering in our room and stead in all 



LIFE'S MYSTERIOUS TEMPLE. 185 

the agonies connected with his spiritual death that he might 
redeem all men from the curse of the law. Xow this Penal 
Substitute for sinners is a Son, the gracious gift of a Father's 
love to a lost and ruined world. 

This theory, unlike some substitutionary theories of the 
atonement, is not amenable to the charge of an invariable 
double imputation. Christ redeemed all men from the 
Adamic penalty, but none from the penalty of eternal death 
under the Grace Covenant. So if any remain spiritually dead 
through time, it is not because the Father demands a second 
payment of the Adamic penalty, but because they will not 
give up their sins, accept Christ, and live; and if any remain 
spiritually dead through all eternity, it is not in payment a 
second time of this penalty, but because spiritual death is an 
element in the eternal death penalty of the Grace Covenant. 

The full and final opening to our fallen race of life's mys- 
terious temple was through the atoning work of the Incar- 
nate Son of God. In this work he brought life and immor- 
tality fully to light. His atonement is the starting point 
and terminus of the Gospel plan of Salvation. It is the Al- 
pha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the 
last of the great Remedial System. The redemption of the 
race and the resurrection of the dead are the two massive 
abutments, with regeneration and sanctification as the grand 
central pillars upon which rests securely the wondrous 
atonement bridge which spans the fearful chasm between 
life and death, time and eternity, heaven and hell. 

There is a difference between administrative and retribu- 
tive penalties. The object of administrative penalties is to 
command respect for law, enforce authority, and deter its 



186 PENALTIES OF DIVINE LAW. 

subjects from disobedience. Such was the penalty of the 
law covenant. And hence it could be paid by a Substitute. 
The object of retributive penalties is to inflict punishment 
upon those who violate the laws. Such is the penalty of the 
Grace Covenant, and consequently, if incurred, it must be 
paid by the sinner himself. 

Neither should we confound penalty with the results or 
mere consequences of sin 3 which are its legitimate and nec- 
essary effects. Law never inflicts its own penalty. Its natu- 
ral consequences necessarily follow, and its incidental results 
are always contingent, but penalty is never inherent in law 
itself. The penalties of the Divine law are all in the hands 
of the great Lawgiver, who is not dependent upon either ex- 
ternal or internal agents for their faithful execution. The 
consequences of our sins are felt in this world, but the in- 
curred penalty of sin will be reserved for the world to come. 
The sin of rejecting Christ must be pardoned in time or 
punished in eternity. The atonement embodies the idea of 
both the redemptive and restorative work of Christ. A work 
looking alike to the redemption and restoration of our race 
was absolutely essential to the needed oneness between man 
and his Maker. The heart of this atonement is the recon- 
ciliation between God and man. The finished and accepted 
atonement pays the penalty, redeems the race, makes the 
necessary sacrificial offering for sin, and then pardons the 
penitent and sanctifies the believer. This atonement is both 
a means and an end. As a means to man's salvation it sat- 
isfied all the claims of a violated law; and as an end it 
meets every promise of divine grace and settles satisfacto- 
rily man's eternal destiny. 



THE REDEMPTIVE FEATURE. 187 

The redemptive feature of the atonement is first in point 
of order. The redemption of the entire race was virtually ac- 
complished before the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It 
was a solemn pledge given by a Divine Being to be taken up 
at maturity — a sacred promise to be redeemed in the fullness 
of time. This redemption of the race was from the curse of 
the law covenant to the blessings of the Covenant of Grace, 
which Covenant tendered to our race a second trial, or per- 
sonal state of probation. 

This redemptive feature of the atonement did not consult 
man's agency in the matter at all. It was simply the out- 
growth of a contract entered into by the Father and the Son, 
and executed by the Redeemer in the interests of a fallen 
race without its solicitation, and largely in the absence of 
its appreciation. In fact, human agency could not have been 
consulted in reference to this feature of Christ's atoning 
work, save in its fallen federal head; because it was virtual- 
ly accomplished before the race was propagated, and in reali- 
ty ere the vast millions of the redeemed were born. 

Christ's redemptive work reconciled God the Father to 
the entire race, and secured for it a day of personal proba- 
tion. The redemption of the race affected the legal standing* 
of all men. It brought them out from under the condemna- 
tion of the law covenant, and placed them under the Cove- 
nant of Divine Grace, with its offers of life and liberty to all 
men upon the amicable terms of the Gospel. Every human 
soul lost its legal standing before God in the fall of our first 
Adam; but that standing was just as universally restored to 
the race in the redemptive work of our Second Adam, who 
also becomes the end of the law for righteousness to every 



188 A TWO-SIDED ATONEMENT. 

one that believetli with the whole heart. But the restoration 
of this legal standing before the Father did not of itself de- 
liver a single soul from the dire effects consequent upon the 
fall — namely, the corruption of the human heart and the de- 
pravity of our fallen nature. It simply placed the race 
where, through the sacrificial death of the Savior, any or all 
might be delivered from personal guilt, and be ultimately 
and eternally saved. 

But, as we have stated, this is a two-sided atonement, and 
it requires an insight into Christ's work under both cove- 
nants to drive away all the mists and let us view it in the 
clear sunlight of revealed truth. Under the first covenant 
he met every demand of justice, healed the breach made in 
the law, and removed every barrier to the Father's recon- 
ciliation. But it was not enough that God had been recon- 
ciled to the world; the world needed to be reconciled to God. 
It was not enough that man had been redeemed from the 
Adamic penalty; he needed cleansing from the personal guilt 
and pollution incident to the fall. Hence under the second 
Covenant Christ made provisions in his sacrificial death upon 
the cross ample for the regeneration and complete restora- 
tion of all men to the Divine favor. The sacrificial offering 
of the Divine Christ paved the way back to man's reconcil- 
iation to his God. 

The sins of the world were transferred to the head of this 
Sacrificial Savior who died physically as a vicarious expia- 
tion that the world through his death might live. It was 
evidently a propitiatory offering accepted by the Father as 
having been made in the interests of the whole world. 

Christ's death upon the cross, then, like his atoning work, 



THIS VIEW OF THE ATONEMENT. 189 

was twofold: spiritual and physical. His spiritual death, 
looking to the redemption of the race, was penal, substitu- 
tionary, unconditional, and unlimited. He tasted spiritual 
death alike for all men, the entire race of mankind. Pie 
made his soul an offering for the Adamic sin of the world. 
But his physical death w T as nonpenal, sacrificial, expiatory, 
conditional, and limited, at least in its application to those 
who would willingly accept salvation in his name and through 
his merits. 

This view of the atonement places it in perfect harmony 
with the known facts of nature and of grace; changes it 
from a fine-spun theory to a grand and glorious reality, and 
makes it both deliver us from the spiritual death penalty of 
the law covenant and, like the ark at-one-ment, or covering, 
protect us from the eternal death penalty of the covenant of 
grace. 

The tabernacle, the temple, the ark, the smoking altars, 
the holy incense, the morning and evening oblations, and 
the services and sacrifices of the great day of atonement 
in Israel, are full of religious significance only in the light 
of facts which show them to be types and shadows of a high- 
er and holier service introduced by the atonement of the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

There is a distinction between the Aaronic and Messianic 
sacrifices and atonements. They bore to each other the re- 
lation of shadow to substance, of type to antitype. One 
had reference to temporal, the other to spiritual, deliverance. 
The Aaronic secured salvation for mortal bodies; the Mes- 
sianic looked to the salvation of immortal souls. The tab- 
ernacle atonements looked to the cleansing of the flesh; the 



190 SACRIFICES AND CEREMONIES. 

sacrificial death of Christ, to the sanctification of the spirit. 
The tabernacle atonements had reference solely to time, but 
were suitable types of the great Messianic atonement of Cal- 
vary, which looked more especially to man's eternal inter- 
ests. This Messianic atonement necessarily differs from all 
other atonements mentioned in the Bible, from the simple 
fact that it had a different object in view, even the restora- 
tion of a lost and ruined race. 

The earth is not filled with sacrifices and ceremonies by 
which salvation may be obtained; neither is heaven filled 
with saints as successful solicitors of this blessing in our 
behalf. The sinner must go in person directly to the 
Fountain Head of all blessings for the gift of eternal life. 
The pardon of our personal transgressions comes only 
through the mercies of the Father, and the merits of his 
Son, our Sacrificial Savior, and in consequence of our 
own earnest seeking, aided by the Holy Spirit; for human 
effort and agencies alone cannot change a single inclination 
of the sinful heart from evil to good, much less can they 
scatter the darkness which conceals from the lost soul the 
light which shines upon the pathway leading to endless life. 

That the atonement in both its leading and essential fea- 
tures was made in the interests of mankind, no one can af- 
ford to deny. Sinful man stood in need of just such an atone- 
ment in his behalf. It was absolutely essential to the res- 
toration of the lost harmony between the Father and the 
fallen. Having once fallen, man could never redeem him- 
self. His perfect obedience in the present and in the future 
could never atone for the disobedience of the past; or, being 
redeemed, he could never regenerate his own soul. If he 



THE RESTORATIVE FEATURE. 191 

could return to cover up his past offenses, sius of omission 
would crowd the present and crown the future of his life. 
This Messianic atonement alone was adequate to appease the 
offended Father, redeem the fallen race, and reconcile rebel- 
lious man to his Maker. 

The redemptive feature of the atonement was virtually 
complete when Christ covenanted to redeem the race. This 
redemption virtually accomplished, the offers of grace fol- 
lowed at once. Hence the restorative feature operated just 
as efficaciously before as after the incarnation and actual 
work of the atonement in its two respective features had 
been accomplished. Christ saved sinners under the old just 
the same as he saves them under the new dispensation — by 
grace, through faith; and their salvation was not of works, 
lest any of them should have boasted. 

The redemptive feature of the atonement is a failure with- 
out the benefits of the restorative feature. Redemption did 
not change even the moral state, much less the spiritual con- 
dition of the redeemed. The sin of the world — the Adamic 
sin — was imputed to Christ only with reference to its penal- 
ty, and not with reference to its guilt. He did not pay the 
penalty of his own sin. And Christ's obedience unto death 
is imputed unto us only with reference to its benefits. We 
did not render personal obedience to God in Christ, and 
hence we are destitute of personal merit. This view of the 
atonement happily connects the law and the Gospel, the old 
and the new dispensations, and presents the entire code of 
Divine Revelation as a symmetrical system of sacred truth, 
making ample provisions for the complete restoration of a 
lost and ruined race. 



192 EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT. 

The design of the atonement was to amend and magnify the 
law, and open up a new and living way through grace to 
glory and to God. It designed to remedy the wrongs of our 
race and restore the peaceful relations that once existed be- 
tween us and our God. The remedial character of the 
atonement is the primary feature in the grand scheme of sal- 
vation's supernatural system. And this remedy is as exten- 
sive in its gracious provisions as the wrongs of the race are 
universal in their reign, extending to the souls and bodies 
of all classes and conditions of humanity. Jesus paid the 
penalty of the law, and made a sin offering for all men. So 
while the throne of justice stands secure the Father stoops 
in mercy with the offers of life and salvation to fallen man 
everywhere upon the conditions of repentance and faith. 

The extent of the atonement in the provisions of both its 
features is evidently universal. For Christ not only tasted 
spiritual death for every man; but he also gave himself a sac- 
rificial ransom for all, and hence he is the propitiation for 
the sins of the whole world. He redeemed the nature he 
represented, and hence the entire race of which he was the 
Second Representative. The restorative feature of the atone- 
ment, however, in its application is necessarily limited to 
those who accept Christ as their personal Savior on the liberal 
terms of the Gospel. The stroke of divine justice fell upon 
the Sinner's Substitute; he paid the penalty for all men, and 
turned the entire race over to a reign of grace, under which, 
through the merits of his sacrificial death, every soul is of- 
fered in good faith the gift of eternal life. 

The atonement was evidently vicarious in its redemptive 
feature. Christ's spiritual death was unquestionably in the 



JUSTICE AND LOVE. 193 

room and stead of a guilty and condemned race. The idea 
of propitiating Deity through sacrificial offerings prevailed 
in the early ages throughout all nations of the earth. And 
there was evidently a very close connection between the 
sacrificial offerings of the Jews and the crucifixion of Christ. 
Paul's letter to the Hebrews shows most conclusively that 
these sacrifices were typical of the vicarious and expiatory 
death of our Sacrificial Savior; who, unlike the high priests, 
needed not daily to offer sacrifices for sin, having made a 
sufficient offering once for all. The moment the real Sacri- 
fice was offered the entire symbolic system was rendered 
useless. When the debt was discharged by the payment of 
the genuine coin, the token money was at once canceled and 
became as worthless as the paper upon which it was printed. 
These types and symbols were then all seen to center in the 
Lamb of God, who had thus been typically slain from the 
foundation of the world. 

But we must ground the great work of the atonement on 
the two fundamental principles of divine government, justice 
and love. And yet no two principles differ more widely than 
these. It is the prerogative of justice to punish, but of love to 
pardon the offender. The two, however, went hand in hand 
in the great work of the atonement. Justice demanded the 
payment of the penalty under the law covenant, wiiile love 
pardons and justifies under the covenant of grace. These 
two principles, like the two covenants, are inseparably con- 
nected. There could have been no pardon under the one but 
for the payment of the penalty under the other. Love never 
could have extended to the guilty sinner the white hand 

of mercy but for the fact that justice had removed every bar- 
13 



194 SUFFERINGS OF A GOD-MAN. 

rier to man's restoration to spiritual life. The cross of Christ 
is a standing monument both to the justice and love of God. 

But this marvelous atonement was the result of bodily 
and soul sufferings upon the part of a Sinless Substitute. 
The physical tortures and soul agonies of Gethsemane and 
Calvary have never been surpassed in the chronicles of the 
ages. The primary object of this atonement was evidently 
to diminish human sufferings. Hence Christ did not, with 
all his sufferings, bear the full measure of the merited mis- 
erv of the ruined race which he died to redeem, or even of 
the souls which he actually saves. For if so, there would 
only be a transfer of suffering from the sinner to the Suffer- 
ing Substitute, and no diminution as to the quantity or 
quality of the intense agonies endured. 

But the sufferings of Christ were not simply the sufferings 
of a human being, neither of a God-inspired, nor yet of a 
God-inhabited man; but of a God-man. Human sufferings 
alone could not ha\e affected the relations of the Divine 
government to our fallen race by way of reparation or atone- 
ment. ]^one but a Divine Being could have contributed 
aught by his sufferings or death to the vindication of the 
violated law or the restoration of lost souls. There is no 
Divinity in humanity; there is nothing infinite in the finite; 
there is no God in man. 

We have no sympathy with the oft-repeated but ground- 
less assertion that Divinity could not suffer. The Scrip- 
tures make no such statement, but, on the contrary, they 
affirm, over and over again, that our Divine Lord and Sav- 
ior did both suffer and die, the Just for the unjust, the Di= 
vine for the human, the Sinless God for the godless man. 



A DIVINE BEING SUFFERS. 195 

The efficacy of Christ's atonement is not to be found so 
much in the intensity of his sufferings as in the fact that 
they were the agonies of an Infinite Being*. Neither is there 
any truth in the commonplace assertion that Christ's hu- 
manity alone suffered; that it was the sacrifice, while his 
Divinity was only the altar upon which his humanity was 
offered, and by which it was sanctified. The Bible says the 
altar is not greater than the offering; but Divinity is evident- 
ly infinitely greater than humanity, and it was the suffering 
and death of an Infinite Being that gave infinite value to 
the atoning work of Christ. Then his sufferings and death 
had reference not merely to the human but also to the di- 
vine elements of his complex nature as a God-man. 

If Christ did not suffer and die as a Divine Being, then 
there was nothing to give efficacy or merit to either his pe- 
nal or sacrificial death. To assert that the Divine nature of 
Christ could not suffer is to assume something that can 
never be proven. The Bible does not so affirm, neither is it 
deducible from any statement contained in God's Word. 
Xor can it be deduced from the Divine perfections, because 
the same arguments would have prevented the sufferings of 
a perfect Christ, whether in his human or divine nature. 
Xeither can it be inferred from the immutability of the Di- 
vine nature; for suffering does not necessarily change the 
character, much less the being, of its subjects. The immu- 
table Christ suffered intensely. His sorrows transcended 
all others. The infinite agonies of the cross are not com- 
parable to any finite sufferings. Yet he remains the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

AYe admit that Divinity did not necessarily suffer — could 



196 PARDON VERSUS PUNISHMENT. 

not have suffered from any involuntary or absolute neces- 
sity, from accident, ignorance, or guilt, as humanity usually 
suffers. But the ability to suffer and die for the good of 
others is not incompatible with the Divine nature. It is a 
possibility within the scope of an Infinite Being. 

Christ's dual death, though affecting the Divine nature as 
well as the human, was not, as some would argue, a punish- 
ment administered by Deity upon itself; nor was it the pun- 
ishment of one Divine Being at the hands of another; but 
simply a voluntary, penal, and sacrificial offering made in 
order to the redemption and salvation of lost sinners. It 
was self-sacrifice rather than self-inflicted punishment on 
the part of Deity. 

All suffering is not punishment. Christ was not pun- 
ished in order to man's pardon. Pardon is not hinged upon 
punishment; it is rather exemption from punishment justly 
deserved. The punishment of man could never have se- 
cured his own pardon; much less could the punishment of 
his substitute have secured it for him. For, if punishment 
could secure pardon, then the demons of hell might look 
forward to a time when their sentences would be remitted, 
and they be set at liberty. But pardon is powerless to 
change the transgressor of the divine law back into a faithful 
and affectionate subject. If pardon had not been condi- 
tioned upon repentance and faith, the affections of a single 
soul could never have been won back to God. 

The Divine benevolence, if manifested at all in the atone- 
ment, is to be seen in the self-denial and self-sacrifice of a 
Divine Being. If humanity made the sacrifice, it was sim- 
ply an exhibition of human rather than of Divine sympathy 



THE SECRET SPRINGS. 197 

and love, and hence could call forth gratitude only for a hu- 
man benefactor; for we cannot transfer our affections at 
pleasure from a real to a would-be theological deliverer. 
"We must needs recognize the Divine Arm that brought de- 
liverance, when every arm of flesh was too short to save a 
single soul. 

Familiarity with the secret springs which move the inner 
life of the soul reveals the fact that the human heart is 
deeply affected by Divine mercy only as it conceives that 
mercy to have been manifested to a lost world, in the self- 
denial, sufferings, and death of a Divine Savior. In the 
atonement God was in Christ discovering the Divine attri- 
butes to humanity, that the creature might the more readily 
and fully comprehend his Creator. Man never could have 
known the magnitude of Divine mercy or the depths of In- 
finite love as he does, save through the exhibition of the same 
by the Son of God in the bloody Garden and on the cruel 
cross, where the Divine Lord suffered and died — the Infinite 
for the finite. 

If we love supremely a Divine rather than a mere human 
Christ, it is because a Divine Christ, as well as a human, 
died for us on Calvary's rugged cross. For the affections 
are not moved toward a Divine Being in view of the self- 
denials and sacrifices of a human being in our behalf. It is 
the character of a being believed to merit our affections who 
draws out the love of our hearts toward himself. Christ 
draws all men as a Divine Deliverer, because they recognize 
in him a Divine Sufferer, who died in our room and stead 
upon the cross. 

Physical death is a separation of soul and body. There- 



198 DIED AS A DIVINE BEING. 

fore if the soul of Christ, which was evidently Divine as well 
as human, passed through this separation ordeal with the 
body prior to its burial, then the Divinity in Christ died just 
as truly as did the humanity. But remember this death of a 
Divine Being was not extinction, annihilation, or anything 
of that kind. It was simply a separation of soul and body 
for a short time, to be reunited in a glorified state on the 
morning of the third day. This painful transition of the soul 
of Christ, like his other sufferings, did not affect the essen- 
tial nature or attributes of his Divinity in the least. His 
dual death was swallowed up in eternal victory, for it 
opened the flood gates of endless life to a lost and ruined 
race. 

But the Bible everywhere represents the Savior's suffer- 
ings and death as those of a Divine Being, and we have no 
right to transfer them to his human nature alone. Deprive 
Jesus of his Divine nature as he hangs in agonies upon the 
cross, and you leave human nature alone in the mightiest 
conflict ever waged by the powers of darkness, to gain the 
grandest victory history has ever recorded. Free the Di- 
vine nature from all the agonies of the cross, and you leave 
the world dependent upon an arm of flesh for eternal de- 
liverance from the power and dominion of sin and Satan. 
Take the Divinity out of the Crucified Savior, and you have 
taken away my Lord, and I inquire with Mary: Where have 
ye laid him? Yes, thank God! Divinity did suffer — a Di- 
vine Being died upon the cross in the person of the Cruci- 
fied Son of God; and even the Infinite heart of the fond Fa- 
ther felt most keenly every pang that pierced the sinless 
soul of his suffering and Dying Son, when that soul was made 



A SUFFERING FATHER. 



199 



an offering and oblation for sin. And every rent and seam 
made in that sacrificial body during the agonies of Calvary 
found a responsive echo in the agonizing soul of a sympa- 
thizing and consequently Suffering Father. But the fact that 
all nature gave evidence of sympathy is the most conclusive 
proof that the sufferings and death of Christ were those of a 
Divine Being. 




CHAPTEE XI. 

THE TKEND OF SIN. 

The trend of sin is deathward. 

TN is the transgression of God's law. It is serv- 
ice rendered to Satan, the enemy of our souls. 
It is consecration to the world. It is rebellion 
against the divine government. In its essential 
nature it is enmity toward God and all that is good, and 
in its manifestations it is open opposition to the rightful 
reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords. 

Sin is a monster — a many-headed hydra, of fearful form, 
whose fatal fangs and forked tongue send death into every 
soul they enter. And yet this dreadful monster is fed and 
fostered, loved and worshiped, the world over. Sin is not an 
entity, but a combination of evil tendencies in the soul. It is 
inherent rebellion against God. It is a cause whose fearful 
consequences are so many evil effects left as stains upon the 
life and character of those who indulge in it. 

Sin is a trinity in unity. Its principle is unbelief, its es- 
sence is enmity, and its development disobedience to God. 
Unbelief, the principle of sin, is lodged in the heart; enmity, 
the essence of sin, is seated in the soul; and disobedience, 
the development of sin, is seen in the life of the transgressor 
of God's holy law. It had no sooner made its inroads upon 
the human race than it began its ravages in the human soul, 
and from that day to this it has rioted and reveled in the rot- 
tenness of man's fallen nature. 
(200) 









§ 4*!l 





THE TREND OF SIN. 



"And sin, 
forth death. 



when it 
' (Jas. i. 



is finished, 
15.) 



bringeth 



ORIGINAL SIX. 203 

Original, inbred sin, or hereditary depravity, consists in 
the corrupt state of human nature in which we are born. It 
consists in our natural inclinations to evil. It is an impulse to 
sin born in the soul, and quite in harmony, and hence very 
agreeable to our fallen nature. It is a primitive force with- 
in, leading us constantly to transgress God's holy and right- 
eous laws. It is a natural tendency of the human heart to 
evil, and that continually, communicated by our first parents 
to all their posterity. This sin is innate in the soul, a part 
and parcel of our being at birth. The soul is naturally sat- 
urated with sin. This inherited sin is black enough; but 
personal transgression gives a deeper, darker hue, until sin 
reigns supreme in the soul. Such a soul Is without the light 
of life, and is left at last without God, or hope in the world. 

Sin is universal. It is the common heritage of every hu- 
man being who enters upon this life. It has affected all 
people of all ages, from its advent into the world down to the 
present, and will continue to do so even to the end of time, 
and it will follow some through the long cycles of eternity. 
The history of humanity is but a record of the vices of our 
race, with here and there a few virtues in striking contrast to 
enliven the dark picture which it paints upon the canvas 
of time. The footprints of time are the most appropriate 
memorials of man's melancholy and mournful passage through 
this wicked world of want and woe. 

Sin changed man from a loving, obedient servant to a 
guilty and condemned criminal. It subverted the original 
order of his nature, elevating the material and sensual above 
the intellectual and spiritual. As a result the will lost its 
power over the passions and affections of the soul, and evil 



204 THE SINFUL SOUL. 

predominates in spite of all man's resolutions to the contrary, 
when left to battle against sin in his own strength. 

Sin has seriously interfered with all the social and sacred 
relations of this life. It has set father against son and son 
against father, mother against daughter and daughter against 
mother; and has woefully disturbed the conjugal relations 
of husband and wife. It has often taken man from the head, 
w T here God placed him, and subordinated him to the weaker 
vessel, wiiile it has more frequently dragged woman down 
from the side of her lord into abject slavery. Again it has 
made her man's mistress, as in the mediaeval ages, when many 
a knight shivered his lance, imperiled his life, and rejected 
his Lord for the lady of his love. 

Sin has simply diseased the soul, so that the sinner is rec- 
reant to all the relations of life. He is out of harmony with 
all good beings. He is even false to himself, his fellows, 
and his God. Created for high and holy ends, he sins with 
hands and head and heart against the Author of his being 
and the Redeemer of his soul. 

Sin so affected the entire unity of man's being as to disor- 
ganize all his spiritual powers and leave him a ruined wreck 
over which angels wept. Every departure from the path of 
obedience strengthens the depraved tendency of the sinful 
soul. Sinning increases the power of sin and weakens man's 
moral forces. Sin has its legal connection with all its fear- 
ful consequences, no matter how remote they may chance to 
be from the overt act of transgression. 

The root of all sin is in the soul. It is always the soul 
that sins, never the body. The Gospel of love lays the law 
of life at the door of the soul. The obligations of the Gos- 



SIN DARKENS THE MIND. 205 

pel rest fairly and squarely upon the desires of the heart and 
the volitions of the will of man. Christ clearly taught that 
the real sin connected with all overt acts of transgression is 
lodged in the secret thought, intent, or purpose of the soul 
that gave it birth. This spiritual law lets its light fall upon 
the inmost chambers of the soul, forbidding every wicked 
thought, desire, and purpose of the human heart calculated 
to lead one into acts of overt transgression against God. 
This same Gospel of love hangs an awful penalty over the 
finally impenitent sinner. It says he shall be consigned, 
soul and body, to a devil's hell, to endless darkness, and 
eternal death. 

Sin is an offspring of the mind. It cannot be accounted 
for in infants on the ground of imitation. It is also superfi- 
cial to say that sin springs from the body. It is the soul 
that sins through the medium of the mind and body. Hence 
we are to be brought into judgment for our vain and idle 
thoughts, as well as for our evil words and wicked works. 

Sin darkens the mind, deadens the heart, and deludes the 
soul, until its devotees are unconscious of the depth of their 
depravity. They vainly imagine that there is still some good 
in them. The mine] under the delusion and dominion of sin 
is in a most fearful condition. 

The introduction of sin into the world threw everything 
into discord and confusion. It is difficult, if not impossible, 
to account for the introduction of this discordant element on 
the earth. It seems to have been simply through the choice 
of evil by the good. Doubtless the most satisfactory solu- 
tion of the problem is to throw it back onto the deceptive 
character of Satau. 



206 ANY MAN MAY SIN. 

Good people never do seek sin for its own sake. It is not 
an object of their affections. The object, with them, always 
lies beyond the act of disobedience, and they only seek 
through sin an imaginary good: such things as they vain- 
ly imagine will gratify their desires, appetites, or passions. 
Otherwise there is no disposition upon the Christian's part 
to transgress God's holy laws at all. This statement is cer- 
tainly true of genuine Christians. 

There is a sense, then, in which the saint cannot sin. It 
is in the willful, mean, malicious sense in which sinners 
sometimes transgress the divine law. He who is born [be- 
gotten] of God sinneth not, because the seed of God remain- 
eth in him, and he cannot sin in this wicked sense; and sin 
in no other sense could bring the fully saved soul under the 
sentence of eternal condemnation. 

There is a sense in which any man may sin. It is through 
ignorance, weakness of the flesh, and the temptations of Sa- 
tan. The regenerate can no more cease sinning in this 
sense than the sun can cease shining. It is a logical se- 
quence of their fallen nature. For when they would do good, 
evil is always present with them. It is sin in them that 
causes the trouble. Not until they awake to righteousness, 
by becoming partakers of the Divine nature, can they cease 
to sin, or live without sin. 

The evidences of the universal reign of sin are to be seen 
on every hand. The hearts of the children of men are de- 
ceitful above everything and desperately wicked. The wild- 
est commotion has prevailed ever since the introduction of 
sin into the world. The Divine displeasure has been repeat- 
edly displayed in the destruction of the wicked ones of 



THE ORIGIN OF SIN. 207 

earth. The history of our race has been but the repeated 
rise and fall of kingdoms, and empires founded and fostered 
in carnage, corruption, and bloodshed. And this extreme 
wickedness of man is but the legitimate effects of his fallen, 
sinful nature and depraved condition. 

Sin like a mighty river rolls round the world, and its trib- 
utaries deluge all lands with want and woe, while weeping 
spirits sit upon its banks longing for the day of eternal de- 
liverance from its power and dominion. In all the broad 
universe there is no river so wide, so deep, so dangerous, 
and so destructive as the raging, foaming river of sin. Its 
dark waves wash every shore, its turbid waters run in every 
direction, and its black floods overflow every land beneath 
the sun. 

The simplest solution of the origin of sin is found in the 
fact that God created a free moral agent who transgressed 
the holy and righteous law of his Maker. God made man 
pure and upright; and man polluted his own nature through 
his obedience to the author of sin, the devil. God is the 
Author of all good, but, strange to say, sin seems to have 
originated in and proceeded from that freedom of will which 
constitutes the chief glory of the moral universe. 

Man is an accountable being, then justly punishable for 
his sins, both of commission and omission, where there is no 
restraint nor compulsion in the matter. These destroy his 
accountability wherever either of them obtains, and he will 
not be punished for what he could not prevent. The divine 
government steers clear of moral necessity, and makes am- 
ple provision for natural coercion. Hence, if a man's will 
is on the right side, and he acts in the opposite direction from 



208 A FREE MORAL AGENT. 

the force of surrounding circumstances, God will not punish 
him according to his external actions, but regard him in the 
light of his internal desires. Neither will God bring to bear 
upon man an internal necessity to wrong volition, and then 
punish him for the same. But when a man wills to do 
wrong, though prevented by external restraints, he is just as 
culpable in the sight of God as though he had committed 
the sin, and will be held accountable accordingly. So it is 
not always in the overt act, but often in the intent and pur- 
poses of. the wicked heart only, that sin in its condemning 
power is found. In other words, our accountability to God 
relates to internal volition rather than to external action. 

Man always was, and always will be, a free moral agent. 
The doctrine of fatality is an obvious fallacy. Man never 
was and never will be morally necessitated to sin. The 
doctrine of moral necessity, so called, is the groundwork of 
infidelity and the stronghold of atheism, tracing the origin 
of evil to the Divine agency. God is not responsible for 
man's sin, neither does he necessitate his obedience. He 
may cause the heart to ache with sorrow or glow with love 
without doing violence in the least to the freedom of the 
will or the right of choice. Any sinner may obey the heav- 
enly influence, or resist the means of divine grace, at his 
own option. 

There is a difference between the passive state of the in- 
tellect, in its necessary decisions, and the active state of the 
will in its voluntary volitions. So God may necessitate, 
either directly or indirectly, the intellectual phenomena of 
the mind without interfering in the least with our right of 
choice; but he cannot enter the domain of the will and dom- 



NATURAL NECESSITY. 209 

in ate its volitions without infringing upon our liberty— yea, 
destroying our free agency. 

We are all creatures circumscribed by a natural neces- 
sity which limits the external sphere beyond which our 
acts, the effects of our volitions, can never be projected. 
But this necessity cannot reach the internal sphere of the 
will itself, and hence affects our free moral agency no more 
than do the gentle influences of the silent stars of night. 
We are free to will what we please, though the external con- 
sequences of our volitions are frequently cut off by natu- 
ral necessity. So natural necessity merely justifies us for 
the performance or excuses us for the nonperformance of ex- 
ternal actions, leaving our interior volitions and free agency 
untouched and undetermined. But moral necessity has to 
do directly with the will. However, it is neither absolute 
nor invincible in its influences upon our volitions. The hu- 
man will knows no irresistible influence nor all-controlling 
power. A man may be a servant, even a slave, for another; 
yet the mind is always free to think, reason, and will at its 
own pleasure. A Christian man is morally necessitated to 
be an honest man, having once accepted Christ as his per- 
sonal Savior. But had he remained a sinner, he would only 
have been under moral obligations to be honest. Moral ne- 
cessity, properly understood, is simply the golden mean be- 
tween absolute necessity and absolute independence, neither 
of which belongs to the code of moral ethics by which God 
would govern our fallen race/ 

God hates sin. He tries to prevent it, and does so to the 

extent of the ability of infinite wisdom and almighty power. 

The intensity of the Divine hatred of sin is clearly manifest- 
14 



210 SIN IS FATAL. 

ed in the magnitude of the penalty affixed to the Grace 
Covenant. God does not even choose or use sin as a means 
to a higher good; for there could be no higher good than 
universal holiness, and sin, as a means, can never lead to 
holiness of heart or purity of life. 

Sin is sure to expose its devotees sooner or later; for the 
life must correspond with the nature, to a greater or less 
degree. Unrestrained, a man's nature would always be 
fully manifested in his life's conduct. Sin in the nature 
naturally develops sin in the life. But the soul cannot long 
conceal the secret of its sins. It naturally seeks a com- 
panion in crime to whom it can reveal the story of its w T rongs. 
v Sin is fatal when finished. Its finality is its fatality. It 
necessarily leads to eternal death. The darkest conceivable 
doom awaits the finally impenitent sinner. He will ulti- 
mately be thrown from his opportunity orbit out into the 
boundless realms of outer darkness and endless death, a 
blasted and blighted orb, doomed to wander in the world of 
woe, far beyond the reach of mercy or the smiles of Heaven. 
The wages of sin is death eternal. 

But, notwithstanding the fearful consequences and the 
more fearful penalty of sin, some people love it so well that 
they had rather enjoy its pleasures for a season than to seek 
salvation, be happy here, and eternally happy hereafter. 
They seem to forget that their sins separate them more and 
more from their God. Rivers run to the ocean no more cer- 
tainly than sin sends its subjects down a broad and beaten 
way to a devil's hell, there to mix and to mingle with the 
demons and the damned forever and forever. 

Sin sticks. It is impossible to rid ourselves of this vile 



UNPARDONABLE SIN. 211 

usurper through human instrumentality alone. Ethics and 
art alike are powerless to sweep away the depravity or wash 
out the guilt of a single sin-polluted soul. The combined 
efforts of past ages have not blotted out one vice from the 
black catalogue of crimes. Human efforts and agencies are 
utterly powerless to remove one stain from the dark calen- 
dar of sin. 

Sins are usually associated together, but sometimes they 
are opposed to each other. Possibly no one person ever 
broke all the commandments in the decalogue. A miser 
cannot be a prodigal, neither can a moralist be a Sabbath 
breaker or a profane swearer. And yet sin is a unit, and he 
who inherits it will be lost eternally without a Savior. To 
offend in one particular is to render one guilty of the whole. 
The least sin condemns to death; and out of Christ there is 
no pardon, no life. 

But there is an unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy 
Ghost. This sin evidently consists in attributing the works 
of the Holy Spirit to Satanic influences, to the devil. When 
this sin is committed the man's destiny is forever sealed, 
his fate is eternally fixed. He is a doomed man, though 
death should delay his coming to the end of time. 

But sins once pardoned are forever pardoned. God does 
not forgive, to call up our old offenses (as men often do), when 
we repeat our transgressions. He blots out our sins, to be 
remembered against us no more forever. He removes them 
as far from us as the east is from the west. He erases them 
from the tablets of his own memory, so that he will look upon 
us when we are brought into judgment just as though we 
had never sinned. He abundantly pardons, pardons for time 



212 SIN NOT A DEBT. 

and eternity, all our hitherto unpardoned sins. He pardons 
abundantly, or he pardons not and pardons never. 

Sin is not a debt, as some suppose. A debt is an obliga- 
tion, but sin is the violation of an obligation. Adam was 
indebted to the law in that he was under obligations to the 
Lawgiver to keep his commandments. So are we, one and 
all. Christ met this obligation in his life of perfect obe- 
dience for all who failed to meet it in the first Adam. He 
also paid in his spiritual death the penalty of Adam's trans- 
gression, which was a debt that could be liquidated in time 
or eternity by none other than an Infinite God. 

Christ made his soul an offering for sin. He died spirit- 
ually in the room and stead of sinful man. His soul-death 
paid the penalty for the race he represented. But the pay- 
ment of this penalty by the Second did not remove the 
sin of the first Adam. It did not so much as remove the 
many consequences of that sin. It simply set the direct 
penalty of the law aside, and gave all men another chance 
for life. It did not so much as take the moral pollution of 
sin from a single soul. The sin of a convict is not gone 
when he pays its penalty in the State penitentiary. Xei- 
ther will a lost soul ever get rid of its sins by paying the 
eternal death penalty of the grace covenant. Pardon is nec- 
essary to the removal of personal sins, and purging to the 
cleansing of the polluted soul. And pardon can come only 
through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Christ's mission upon earth relative to sin was threefold. 
It was to condemn sin in the flesh, make provision for the 
pardon of personal transgression, and the purging of innate 



THE SOUL SINS. 213 

sin from the soul. The first he did by his life of perfect and 
sinless obedience to the law of God; the second he accom- 
plished by his atoning- death upon the Roman cross; the 
third he compassed in his triumphant resurrection from the 
dead. lie was delivered for our offenses and raised again in 
order to our justification or freedom from sin. So we have 
a complete victory over sin offered us through our Lord and 
Savior Jesus Christ. 

It is the soul that sins. The body cannot sin as an agent, 
but simply as an instrument; because it cannot choose be- 
tween right and wrong. Hence it cannot incur guilt. And 
the penalty of sin is not arbitrary, but is inseparably asso- 
ciated with sin itself. The life and death of the soul, and 
not the body, were the primal ideas involved in the obedience 
or disobedience of the first Adam to the divine law. And 
so the principal ideas involved now in the acceptance or re- 
jection of the Second Adam are those of eternal life and 
eternal death, primarily to the souls of men. Sin separates 
the soul from its God. Whatever affects the soul as a unit 
necessarily affects all the intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
faculties of the soul. Sin entered the world through the 
transgression of one man, and soul-death was its legitimate 
penalty. The light of nature may have shown many the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin, but it has never pointed out to any 
the Elixir of Life. The remedy through redemption and res- 
toration in Christ was necessarily a matter of Divine Revela- 
tion. The Savior of sinners is the only hope for the sorrow- 
ful and sin-burdened souls of the sons of God or the daugh- 
ters of men. 

The remedy for sin, then, is not the result of man's inge- 



214 THE DIVINE EEMEDY. 

nuity, nor is it the triumph of human philosophy ; but the off- 
spring of Divine wisdom — a child of heaven. The Divine 
Remedy satisfied the law, maintained its supremacy, and 
placed the seal of pardon in the hands of a loving Father, 
who forgives the penitent sinner at his own good pleasure. 

Sin has envenomed the soul, but this remedy neutralizes 
the poison. It has fastened its deadly fangs deeply into the 
human constitution; but the efficacy of Christ's sacrificial 
death is sufficient to overthrow the mightiest ramparts of in- 
iquity, rout the monster sin from his strongholds, and flood 
the souls of men with the blood that cleanseth from all sin. 
The heart, honeycombed with sin, may have this remedy 
applied and be cleansed from all its pollution and guilt. 

Sin snapped asunder the cord of affection which bound 
the soul of man to its vital center, and threw it out into the 
dark fields of night to wander alone through the regions of 
death; but this divine remedy readjusts the severed relations 
between man and his Maker, cements the severed cord of 
love with the blood of sprinkling, and seals the soul in its 
native orbit, where it will revolve in eternal joys around the 
throne of God. 

This wonderful remedy is commensurate with the ravages 
of sin. It pertinently and perfectly adapts itself to every 
peculiarity of the penitent, believing soul; and the cure ef- 
fected by it is radical and lasting. It strikes at the very 
root of sin, removing its cause — a sinful, depraved nature — 
and making the man a new creature in Christ Jesus. The 
sins of the penitential soul are all forgiven, and the true be- 
liever accepted as righteous for the sake of the Sacrificial 
Savior, who suffered for him upon the cruel cross of Calvary. 



SELFISHNESS. 



215 



All the motive powers of our finite being are seated in the 
soul. When these powers are all in perfect harmony with 
each other, and in sweet accord with our best interests, we 
are happy. But if the soul be the abiding place of sin and 
hatred, then malice, revenge, and remorse will reign over 
our motive powers, and we shall be unholy ; and hence misery 
and unhappiness are sure to follow. Selfishness is the sum 
and substance of so many of our sins. Even the supremacy 
of self over the Supreme Ruler of the universe is the natural 
tendency and trend of sin. 





CHAPTER XII. 

THE ESSENTIALS TO SALVATION. 

Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 

xx. 21.) 

HE seen often reveals the unseen. The natural 
is the counterpart of the supernatural. In spir- 
itual as in temporal affairs there is no great 
conquest without its corresponding struggle. 
There is no life for the dead soul short of a victory over 
sin and Satan. There is no salvation for the lost sinner 
save through the agonizing throes of a sin-sick soul earnest- 
ly seeking a Living Savior. 

Salvation consists in personal deliverance from the pollu- 
tion, power, and dominion of sin. All men are in need of 
this salvation. Xone can save themselves. Present duty 
faithfully performed cannot purchase pardon for past offenses 
nor secure indulgences for future wrongdoing. Perfect 
obedience in the future could not compensate for the failures 
of the past or present. Salvation is the gift of God, by grace 
through faith. It is not of works or merit, lest some man 
should boast. 

Christ is the only Savior. He alone can save the soul. 
Salvation was the primary object of his merciful mission into 
this world. Redemption itself was of secondary importance, 
since it avails nothing to those who are not also saved by his 

grace. He came preeminently to seek and to save the loved 
(216) 



23 



* 2 




SEVERAL STEPS. 219 

and lost of earth, and he saves every soul that approaches 
him in the use of the means essential to salvation. He is 
mighty to save even to the uttermost. To compass the sal- 
vation of the vilest sinner, the Savior can control every dis- 
pensation of Divine providence. He is absolutely infinite in 
the sweep of the Divine energies of his matchless being and 
the far-reaching results of his saving power. 

Even the means of salvation all flow to us through the me- 
dium of a Sacrificial Savior, and withal the grace to employ 
these means successfully. The Crucified Christ is the cen- 
tripetal force which seeks to center the sinful soul in God, 
while sin is the centrifugal force which strives to throw it 
off at a tangent from the orbit that encircles Deity. Christ 
came into this wicked world not merely to gauge the dimen- 
sions of human grief, but first to seek and then to save that 
which was lost. 

There are several steps to be taken in passing from the 
service of Satan to that of the Savior, from a sinful life to one 
of holiness, from a death in trespasses and in sins to a spiritual 
life in which one is fully alive unto God. These necessary 
steps leading the sinner to Christ, we term the essentials to 
salvation. These essentials are as follows: Thought, consid- 
eration, conversion, conviction, repentance, faith, pardon, 
spiritual birth, and spiritual baptism. And the consequences 
of full and final salvation are regeneration, sanctificatiom 
and glorification. The individual who passes successfully 
through all these experiences will come out in the end, soul 
and body, as pure and holy as the angels in heaven. Such 
is the consummation of this great salvation. 

We will now dwell upon these essentials and consequences 



220 THOUGHT IS ESSENTIAL. 

more minutely. Thought is man's unlimited messenger. It 
wings its way on tireless pinions with more than lightning 
speed around the w r orld. It passes from planet to planet, 
revels among the distant stars, traverses the fields of infinite 
space, and returns the same hour laden with the glories of its 
bloodless conquests and matchless victories over time and 
space. The intellectual empire of man is all but boundless. 
It is not founded upon the limited boundaries of any one 
finite mind, no matter how comprehensive that mind might 
chance to be. This empire of the mind always has a little 
more light to shed upon the dark problems of time, as the 
generations of earth follow each other to the eternal world. 
Problems w^hich have successfully resisted the siege of cen- 
turies sometimes yield their solutions readily to the humblest 
searcher after truth. 

Thought is essential to salvation. No sane man who re- 
fuses to think on the subject of religion can be saved. He 
who willfully closes his mind against this all-important sub- 
ject will never accidentally drift into the channels of repen- 
tance and faith, and thoughtlessly pass through the gate- 
ways of spiritual birth and baptism leading to life eternal. 
Neither will God ever coerce a thoughtless soul into a saved 
relation with Christ. God has endowed us with these won- 
derful intellectual faculties that we may think for our- 
selves, and, thinking, act as free agents in the interests of 
our own immortal souls. 

But thought on the subject of one's salvation very natu- 
rally leads to consideration. Consideration is essential to the 
salvation of every accountable being who would be saved. 
One must consider the danger to which he is exposed, before- 



CONSIDERATION AND CONVERSION. 221 

he will flee the wrath to come. He must look in and see the 
exceeding sinfulness of his lost soul, before he will drink the 
wormwood and gall of repentance. He must investigate the 
conditions upon which salvation is offered, before he will 
open the eye of faith to the unseen world. He must reflect 
upon the uncertainties of life, the certainty of death and the 
judgment, before he will yield himself unreservedly into the 
hands of an all-sufficient Savior. 

But consideration very naturally terminates in conversion. 
Conversion is a change of mind, an exchange of purposes, 
and is also essential to the salvation of all rational beings. 
Man must be converted, changed in the intents and pur- 
poses of his heart, before he will forsake his sins and turn to 
God for life and salvation. But conversion is not salvation; 
it is simply another step in that direction. Those who sub- 
stitute conversion for regeneration stop infinitely short of 
the real joys and blessings of salvation. 

Conversion legitimately leads to conviction, and often no 
farther. It is the province of the Holy Spirit to bring con- 
viction to every sinful soul who wills it through these es- 
sential steps leading in the direction of salvation. He was 
sent into the world for the express purpose of convincing all 
men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Conviction 
consists not merely in a consciousness of sonl condemna- 
tion, but also in a sense of soul depression. And when con- 
viction becomes deep, pungent, and powerful, it burdens 
the soul with a weight of woe so great that it makes one 
feel as though the pains of hell had gotten hold upon him 
and the demons of hell were in waiting to take possession 
of him. 



222 CONVICTION. 

Conviction very naturally results in repentance toward 
God. Repentance is still another essential to salvation. 
Except one repent, death instead of life is to be his eternal 
portion. Man must return to God along the line of repent- 
ance, or be lost, and lost eternally. There is no salvation 
in time or eternity for the impenitent soul. Evangelical re- 
pentance and consecration imply a turning away from sin 
and an affectionate submission to the divine will — a willing- 
acceptance of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The 
truly penitent and submissive soul has a natural capacity 
for spiritual life. In this capacity lies its receptivity. The 
inmost chambers of such a soul are not only ready to re- 
ceive the Blessed Savior, but he is daily and hourly ex- 
pected, and is more than welcomed at his coming. The 
very fingers of the penitent soul are feeling after God, if 
haply they may find him. There is a grandeur in the in- 
tense agonies of such a soul in its seekings that renders its 
very longings after life and salvation mysteriously sublime. 
It is looking now through the mists of the morning for the 
light of an endless day. 

Saving repentance is a godly sorrow for sin. It is a 
sorrow for sin not simply because of its fearful consequen- 
ces, but in view of its nature and heinousness in the sight 
of God. The Bible makes a very clear distinction between 
w 7 orldly and Godly sorrow r for sin. It uses two different 
w r ords in the original to indicate these two kinds of repent- 
ance. Those who seek reconciliation with God alone 
through worldly sorrow w r ill never find the sweet assurances 
of salvation lodged in their inmost souls. He who attempts 
to erase his own sins from the tablets of memory and bury 



REPENTANCE. 223 

them in eternal oblivion simply turns away from the merits 
of a Sacrificial Savior to trust in the weakness of his own 
strength, and be lost forever. Human resolutions are a 
poor substitute for Divine grace. 

Repentance is a primary principle in the preparation for 
the new birth. In fact, every important reformation of life 
is preceded by a sorrow for the wrong. Hence the stress 
laid upon the subject of repentance by his forerunner, and 
by the Savior himself, at the very introduction of the gospel 
dispensation. They taught that evangelical repentance was 
absolutely essential to salvation. It was fruit meet for re- 
pentance — repent or perish. There was no other alternative. 
To insist on an impenitent sinner accepting Christ as his per- 
sonal Savior is simply to cast pearls before swine. It is an 
impossibility for him to do so. He must first repent of his 
sins. It is the sinner's part to surrender himself, sins and 
all, into the hands of Christ. It is the Savior's prerogative 
to accept the offering, blot out his sins, and save his soul. 

The nature of our sins renders repentance a necessity. 
They are a declaration of rebellion against God, a renuncia- 
tion of allegiance to the Divine authority; and it is but just 
and right that every man should drink the bitter cup of re- 
pentance before he is allowed to partake of the joys of sal- 
vation. Repentance implies a reformation of life, a sorrow 
for and a turning away from our sins. This was a most fa- 
miliar theme to the prophets, the burden of the forerunner's 
message, and a prominent doctrine in the preaching of 
Christ and his apostles, The essentials to salvation never 
change; they have remained the same through the succes- 
sion of the centuries, and will to the end of time. 



224 ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 

But repentance in its completion naturally and necessa- 
rily issues in faith. In fact, repentance and faith are in- 
separably connected. They are separate and distinct parts 
of oue and the same act of the soul. It is like this: A 
man stands on the division line between two states. He takes 
just one step, and he has passed out of one state into the 
other. So it is with the penitent sinner: by one act of the 
soul he passes out of a lost into a saved state. The first 
part of that act we may call repentance; the second part, 
faith; and we shall see how the one necessarily issues in the 
other, and why they are used interchangeably in the Bible in 
pointing out the conditions of life and salvation. 

But faith is another essential to salvation. Faith, with 
what it implies, is the sole condition upon which the offers 
of life are made to fallen man. Christ not only conditioned 
salvation upon faith; he also made it the mainspring of his 
mighty works and healing power, while unbelief was the 
only barrier to his blessings, both temporal and spiritual. 
Faith is the hand with which the heart reaches out after and 
receives the blessings of life and salvation. In fact, the 
true believer hangs all his votive offerings upon the horns 
of the altar; and it is the province of his faith to rise above 
the mists of the morning and celebrate in advance of God's 
blessings the glories of a dawning day. 

Faith is both of the head and the heart. There is what 
we term historical and evangelical faith. The first is sim- 
ply an element in, and essential to, the existence of the lat- 
ter. Heart faith is dependent upon head belief. A man 
cannot believe with the heart while he doubts with the head. 
The assent of the mind must precede the acknowledgment 



FAITH GOVERNS AFFECTIONS. 225 

of the heart, and it is with the heart only that man believeth 
unto righteousness. All the head faith ever exercised by 
men can never save a single soul. Historic faith alone is a 
blind force. It cannot discern right from wrong, and rea- 
son is powerless to correct its false impressions. Revela- 
tion only can give eyes to faith and guide it successfully 
through the labyrinths of truth and error. Without Reve- 
lation truth is wrong, faith is false, and conscience is cor- 
rupt. Now conscience is a potential power, following in 
the wake of faith, be it true or false, and enforcing its de- 
mands upon the soul without any moral reservation what- 
ever. 

Our faith governs our affections. We just as readily 
love a person whom we believe to possess excellent traits of 
character as though he really did possess them. The entire 
being, in feeling at least, is dominated by one's faith. 
Faith exerts an influence over us greater than sight, be- 
cause it gains rather than loses power over the soul by repe- 
tition. It is a growing power, when and wherever culti- 
vated or exercised. 

Then what we believe is a matter of paramount impor- 
tance to us and to others; for evil is inseparably connected 
with the belief of falsehood, while good is eternally linked 
with the belief of the truth. Faith in the truth will lead a 
man in the right way to life eternal; but faith in falsehood 
will force him in the wrong road to wreck and ruin for time 
and eternity. The effects of faith in the fundamental truths 
of the gospel lead to the destruction of sin in the soul and 
the rectification of the heart life and love of the believing" 

sinner. And the believer who exercises heart faith in the 
15 



226 FAITH A FUNDAMENTAL FACTOR. 

Crucified Christ will find welling up in his saved soul a 
fountain of pure and holy affections for the Father of 
Lights and his fellow-mortals which will flow on forever. 

That head faith which does not reach the heart can 
never save the soul. Saving faith evidently implies both 
the assent of the mind and the acknowledgment of the 
heart. Head belief is simply an essential element in heart 
faith. The two words are not synonymous, and should 
never have been used interchangeably in the translation of 
the Bible. Each has its respective sphere. The realm of 
belief lies largely outside and beyond the region of faith. 
The realm of faith is circumscribed by facts and confined to 
the Revealed Christ, the Author and Finisher of the faith that 
conditionally saves the soul. And it is simply sublime to 
see the Christian man standing amidst the uncertainties of 
life, with his foot fixed firmly upon the promises of God, and 
his faith towering grandly up into the sunlight of Christ's 
eternal love. 

Faith is one of the great cardinal doctrines of Revelation, 
upon which hang the destiny of immortal souls. It is a fun- 
damental factor in all the grand achievements of the Chris- 
tian life. It looks lovingly up to God, laughs at impossibili- 
ties, and says the work can and must be done. Such faith 
is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of the 
existence of things not seen. In reference to spiritual 
things faith is our only means of experimental knowledge. 
The natural senses are wholly inadequate to the discern- 
ment of the things of the Spirit. The spirit alone, and that 
only through the eye of faith, takes cognizance of spiritual 
things. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 



OUR FAITH. 227 

Heart faith brings eternal life, and eternal life qualifies 
us for good works. It counteracts our evil propensities 
and sinful habits. It opens our blinded eyes to all needed 
spiritual good, and enables us to bring forth much fruit 
to the honor and glory of God. It also regulates and 
harmonizes all the spiritual powers of the saved soul. It 
works by love, and purifies the heart and life of the true be- 
liever. It closes in with revealed truth, and meekly but ar- 
dently embraces the divine promises of the Living Christ. 
Thus faith rises above the visible and tangible and takes 
hold upon the invisible and eternal of God's promises. And 
every time the door of faith swings upon its golden hinges 
to welcome the Loving Christ to the trusting heart the 
benedictions of heaven fill the waiting soul with joy and 
gladness. 

Our faith is not the direct gift of God, but the personal 
act of the creature. It is the grace which enables us to 
exercise this faith, and the salvation which follows that are 
the gifts of God. By the grace of God we are saved through 
the exercise of our own faith. And that salvation is not of 
ourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast; it is the 
gift of God. Through "the gift of faith" we are hid, or 
unified, with God the Father in God the Son. 

Faith is the condition which implies all other essentials to 
salvation, and removes every barrier to the regenerative 
work of the Holy Spirit. Just as an authorized announce- 
ment to surrender a besieged city implies the cessation of 
resistance at every point of opposition, and the removal of 
every barrier to its peaceful possession by the besiegers, so 
faith implies a surrender of all the strategic points in our 



228 REGENERATION. 

sinful nature to Christ, with a recognition of his right 
peacefully to reign in and rule over us in righteousness. 

But faith is followed by regeneration. Regeneration is 
another essential to salvation. In Biblical phraseology it 
is a passage from death unto life, being born again, born of 
the Spirit, born of God. It is the restoration of that life to 
the dead soul which was lost in the fall of the first Adam. 
The hand, the head, and the heart are all affected by this re- 
generation of the soul. 

Regeneration is a spiritual change. It can be effected 
only by a spiritual influence. Physical and intellectual 
causes cannot produce spiritual effects. Spirit alone can 
operate upon spirit, as matter upon matter, or mind upon 
mind. Regeneration does not affect directly either the phys- 
ical or intellectual man. It has to do directly with the af- 
fections of the heart, and hence is termed a change of heart, 
a renovation of the affections of the soul, or spirit. The act 
of regenerating the soul is through the direct and efficient 
operations of the Holy Spirit. Reformation is not regenera- 
tion. The distinction is easily seen. Reformation pertains 
only to the conduct of a man, while regeneration has to do 
with the soul itself. Morality is but a trait of character, 
while spirituality is a principle of life. 

There is no substitute for a spiritual birth. Benevolent 
sympathies, a devout spirit, the most favorable environments, 
and the highest possible ideal life all fall infinitely short of 
regeneration. True there are many characteristics in com- 
mon with the regenerate, and some of the unregenerate. 
But there is this striking distinction between them: one 
possesses a unique spiritual life to which the other is an entire 



A SUPERNATURAL ENDOWMENT. 229 

stranger. The difference is not one of development, but of 
life and death. The distinction is one of quality rather than 
quantity. The regenerate man has a new, distinct, and su- 
pernatural endowment of spiritual life; while the unregen- 
erate, no matter how moral he may chance to be, is still dead 
in trespasses and in sins. 

A sinner is such by nature, and cannot become a saint ex- 
cept by a change of his nature, the result of a spiritual birth 
and a spiritual baptism. This change he can never effect or 
produce in himself. It must be the work of the Holy Spirit. 
Self-regeneration is just as absurd and impossible as self- 
redemption ever was. In preparing the soul for regenera- 
tion the Holy Spirit may act directly or indirectly, by means 
of the truth. The Spirit may render the truth powerful, to 
affect the soul, or soften the soul as wax, to receive the im- 
pressions of the word; or both may be done. In either 
case the result would be the same upon the soul. The won- 
derful plasticity of such a soul makes it the most susceptible 
object of regeneration in existence. The transformation is 
wonderful. New life is imparted to every faculty and func- 
tion of the saved soul. 

Regeneration separates us from the first and unites us to 
the Second Adam. This union between the regenerate soul 
and the Savior should be just as close and intimate as that 
between a body and the food by which it is nourished. 
Christ is the bread and water of life to the saved soul. The 
new life demands new food. Spiritual food alone can vital- 
ize the inner life and hold the outer man in loving subjec- 
tion to the will of God. Regeneration is the origin of a su- 
pernatural life. This life affects us both internally and exter- 



230 REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS. 

nally. It gives us love within and obedience without. 
Christ wants to reign in and rule over the regenerate heart 
in righteousness. The soul born of the Spirit and baptized 
with the Holy Ghost has a natural affinity for the Sun of 
Righteousness. It is a spiritual marigold, turning wherever 
its sun goes, and ever drinking in the light and the life of the 
same. Yet this restoration gives no new faculties to the 
soul. It simply purifies and regulates those it already pos- 
sesses. 

Regeneration is instantaneous, just as the lighting of a 
lamp instantly expels the darkness from a room, or the open- 
ing of the window^ shutters at noontide floods it at once with 
the golden sunlight, so when the veil of unbelief is rent and 
the eye of faith is opened to the Sun of Righteousness the 
soul is filled at once Avith the light of spiritual life and the 
fire of Divine love. The Sun of Righteousness rises with 
healing in his beams upon the sin-sick soul, and the dark 
night of death instantly gives way to the morning light of 
w T hat may be a day of endless life. 

This passage from death to life is necessarily instanta- 
neous. Like the exit from natural life to death, the steps 
leading to it may be by slow degrees, or they may follow 
each other in quick succession to the last expiring moment; 
but the change itself necessarily lies between two consecu- 
tive moments. So in regeneration the change must of neces- 
sity take place between the last moment of spiritual death 
and the first moment of spiritual life. The seeking sinner, 
like the sorrowful disciples on the Sea of Galilee, sometimes 
toils hard and long without making any headway, until he 
sees Jesus walking upon the troubled waters, and by faith 



THE FULLY RESTORED SOUL. 231 

receives him into his sinking bark; then immediately the 
anxious soul reaches its desired haven and is at rest. And 
the moment this same soul is baptized with the Holy Spirit 
the celestial fire consumes all its sin and floods it with a 
fullness of sacred love. God commands the light to shine 
out of darkness, and immediately the dark soul is filled with 
the light of an endless life. Restoration is the passage of 
the sonl from spiritual darkness to light everlasting, and from 
spiritual death to life eternal. 

So in this full salvation the divine likeness lost in the fall 
is also restored to the soul. At the new birth this divine 
likeness is but a negative after development, but dimly out- 
lined. At spiritual baptism the lifelike photograph is print- 
ed from this negative, which has been touched up by the 
Holy Spirit for that purpose. Then in the growth that fol- 
lows it is mounted and polished into a grand symmetrical 
Christian character 

The fully restored soul is perfectly conscious of its accept- 
ance with God. This is absolutely essential to the exercise 
of that filial love and the enjoyment of that abiding peace 
which characterize the consecrated life. The Holy Spirit 
bears direct witness with the spirits of the restored, giving 
them the sweetest assurance of their acceptance and eternal 
salvation. Here is where Divinity meets humanity and sets 
np its tabernacle in the soul. Birth and baptism are the 
doorways through which Christ enters and floods the inner 
chambers of the soul with the fullness of his love. The new 
birth is the focal point where all the important doctrines of 
the Gospel meet. A wrong conception of this subject af- 
fects almost every phase of Christianity, and greatly endan- 



232 SALVATION'S CONSEQUENTS. 

gers the salvation of immortal souls. The word ''regenera- 
tion " occurs but twice in the New Testament, and in each 
instance signifies in the original a renovation, restoration, or 
reproduction. 

Regeneration may or may not issue in the final salvation 
of the soul. But complete restoration generates life in the 
dead soul, perfects it in the love of God, and the sinner is 
not only converted into a believer, but the believer necessa- 
rily becomes a saint. In this restoration the positive and 
negative batteries are simply brought into contact with each 
other, and the circle of life is complete. Birth and baptism 
act upon a man from within. They open up in him a foun- 
tain of affection whence flow streams of light, life, and love. 
They vitalize the whole being, set the spiritual faculties all 
in motion, and conjoin the whole man to the Lord, so that 
the external conduct is in perfect harmony with the internal 
condition of the saved soul. 

But salvation has its consequents as well as its anteced- 
ents. The one is no less legitimately connected with it than 
the other. Justification, adoption, and glorification — these 
are all directly or indirectly hinged upon heart faith, and 
hence inseparably connected with full and final salvation. 
Full salvation is deliverance from the pollution, power, and 
dominion of sin. It is sometimes attributed to the sufferings, 
blood, death, life, resurrection, and righteousness of Christ; 
because they are so related that either implies all the others 
when reference is had to it as an essential to salvation. 

The sinner is no sooner saved than he is at once inducted 
into the family and household of God. He becomes an heir 
of God and a joint heir with Christ to an inheritance incor- 



JUSTIFICATION. 233 

ruptible and eternal in the heavens. He is now a son, and 
this sonship entitles him to all the blessings, privileges, and 
immunities of the spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of God. 

But the saved are also justified, in act, when they repent; 
in person, when they believe and are pardoned; and in life, 
state, or heart condition, when they are purged and purified 
by baptism with the Holy Ghost. Justification is a legal 
process. It is simply the opposite of condemnation. It is 
not an act, but a declaration. To justify is not to make, but 
simply to declare men holy who have already been made so 
through the act of regeneration or sanctification. Justifica- 
tion is a sentence of acquittal passed upon one, not to make 
him righteous, bat because he is already righteous. 

Justification is by faith. That life which is peculiar to 
the just is the result of abiding faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Faith makes fruitful such a consecrated life. Ef- 
forts at self-justification are the hidden secrets of so many 
heartaches in our search for happiness; while the heart that 
cheerfully accepts justification solely through the merits of 
Jesus Christ is at once filled with peace which passeth un- 
derstanding. AVe are not justified, then, because of our own 
good works or personal merits; nor is our faith a merito- 
rious, but merely a conditional, cause of our justification. 
The more importance we attach to the doctrine of justi- 
fication by faith the more clearly will we see the necessitv 
of good works and the more constant^ bear fruit to the 
honor and glory of God. 

Full salvation does not mean infinite or absolute perfec- 
tion. It does not necessarily imply Christian perfection. 
Constant spiritual growth is essential to Christian perfec- 



234 ADOPTION. 

tion. Our growth in grace is a gauge to our perfection. 
The more rapid and constant our growth the sooner we reach 
and retain manhood, or maturity in the divine life; for 
growth in grace is simply the unfolding and maturing of the 
life principles imparted to the soul in the birth and baptism 
experiences. In this growth process there must be constant 
cooperation between the human and Divine agencies. Man 
must be constantly striving more and more to know and 
to do the Master's will, and then God will ever be giving 
him more and more grace with which to develop that grand 
and S}mimetrical Christian character; and so the growth in 
grace goes grandly on toward the goal of Christian perfec- 
tion, its ultimate consummation. 

Adoption is in connection w r ith the resurrection or re- 
demption of our bodies. It is not after the order of adopt- 
ing orphan children. God does not need to adopt his own 
children in that sense. The Romans had a custom that 
when the father w r ould set his son at liberty he would in the 
presence of the populace take off the juvenile toga (cloak or 
gown) and put on him the manly toga, saying, I this day in- 
vest my son with my name, my property, and my honor — 
everything that I have, as a legacy for him, I now bequeath 
to him. And this adopted son was henceforth a Roman cit- 
izen, entitled to all the rights and immunities of that great 
empire. So God adopts his sons and daughters after they 
reach their majority. In our resurrection he will take off 
the mortal, corruptible, natural toga, and put on the immor- 
tal, incorruptible, spiritual toga, and we shall become full- 
fledged citizens, entitled to all the honors and emoluments 
of the heavenly kingdom, the eternal empire of Divine love. 



ELECTION AND REPROBATION. 235 

Glorification is the crowning work in the Christian life. To 
glorify is to honor or exalt spiritually. Onr eternal glorifi- 
cation of soul and body will take place in the morning of the 
first resurrection, when this corruption shall put on incorrup- 
tion, this mortal immortality, and a glorified body be reunited 
with a glorified soul, and welcomed with the sweet hosannas 
and loud halleluiahs of the angels into the courts of endless 
glory and honor, to live and reign with God for evermore. 

We will close this chapter with a few remarks on elec- 
tion. It is so closely allied to the subject of salvation as to 
demand our attention in this connection. 

Election is conditional. To elect is simply to select or 
choose. Election and reprobation always have reference 
to the state or condition of their subjects. In dealing 
with men with reference to eternity God can be governed 
by no other consideration than their accountability to and 
standing before him. If one man is elected to everlast- 
ing life, and another reprobated to eternal death, the re- 
sult accords both with reason and Revelation. It is because 
one is penitent, believing, and submissive; while the other is 
impenitent, unbelieving, and rebellious. It is because one 
is obedient to the heavenly call, and the other disobedient; 
for while many are called, but few are chosen. These are 
the only distinctions which reason and Revelation recognize 
in the election of the saved and the reprobation of the lost. 
And if election and reprobation are from all eternity, they 
are based upon God's foreknowledge, which does not domi- 
nate man's freedom of choice in the least, and hence are 
still conditioned upon man's acceptance or rejection of Je- 
sus Christ as his portion and his all. 



236 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 

Christian perfection is the highest standard of Christian 
life attainable in this world, under all the surrounding cir- 
cumstances. To be perfect as God is perfect is simply to 
be perfect or to fill perfectly our sphere as God fills his. 
Christian perfection does not imply infinite or absolute per- 
fection. These belong to God alone. Even the conduct of 
angels is as folly in his sight. Neither does it imply angel- 
ic perfection. This belongs to the angels only, for man in 
his original state was made a little lower than the angels. 
Nor does it imply human perfection, for the world has 
known but one specimen of human perfection since the fall 
of the first, and that was in the person of the. Second Adam. 
Of him alone could it be truthfully said : There was no guile 
in his mouth. He only of all human beings lived and died 
without committing one sin. He was the sinless Son of 
Man. He gave to the world a specimen of human perfec- 
tion. Only with Christ as our perfect model may we hope 
to attain even unto Christian perfection in this life. The 
pathway to perfection lies through the valley of humiliation 
and submission. The fiery baptism with the Spirit is a pu- 
rifier of the heart, and the fiery baptism of the furnace of 
affliction of the life of the Christian. When we pass through 
the fires we are refined as silver and gold. Like the burn- 
ing bush of Horeb, we are aflame from top to bottom, but 
never consumed. Or, like Paul, we are killed all the day 
long, but behold we live! We pass on to perfection 
through many afflictions and adversities. Humbly but tri- 
umphantly we walk upon the royal road leading through 
grace to glory and to God. 



AT THE CROSS. 

"Par the word of the cross is to them 
that are perishing- foolishness; but unto 
us which are being saved it is the power 
of God." (1 Cor. i. 18, R. V.) 



"God forbid that I should glory, save in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Gal. 
vi. 14.) 




CHAPTER XIII. 

THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

Pure religion. (Jas. i. 27.) 

ELIGIOX is a system of worship. Man is nat- 
urally a religious being. He will worship 
something. There is no tribe so savage but 
has its altar of devotion. There is no heathen 
nation but has its gocls. Worship seems to be essential to 
man's Aery existence. Religion is the natural outgrowth of 
his conscious dependence upon a higher power than he finds 
within himself. A man's religion, let it be what it may, is 
the better part of his life; it is the lifeboat of his voyage; 
it is his passport through time and his hope for eternity. 

It is the nature of religion to centralize human thought, 
subdue human passions, harmonize human powers, and 
place man in unison with the god he worships. A conform- 
ity of character is the primal law of all religions. Man 
cannot rise in his religious devotions above the real or sup- 
posed perfection of the object of his supreme adoration. 
The life of the devotee just as naturally flows toward the 
shrine of his god as water seeks its own level in the ab- 
sence of all obstruction. Religion naturally likens its sub- 
jects to their masters; it assimilates them in character and 
conduct to the gods they worship. 

False religion comes to us in many forms. It consists in 

the worship of many idols, or the false worship of the true 

(239) 



240 THEORETICAL RELIGION. 

God. It is as important that we worship in the proper way 
as that we worship the proper object. He who worships idol 
gods with the deepest devotions of a confiding heart cannot 
possibly miss heaven farther, or more certainly, than he who 
worships with lip service alone the true and living God. 

Theoretical religion cannot save a single soul. It is just 
as destitute of saving power as is the atheist of true wisdom, 
or the idiot of sound judgment. The demands of the gos- 
pel are not merely accidental, rhetorical, or ideal; they are 
intentional, prosaical, and real. The acceptance of tradi- 
tional beliefs, the participation in conventional worship, and 
the strictest observance of the letter of the law, all do not 
bring us into a saved relation with Christ. A vast ocean 
lies between the real and the ideal, between any merely the- 
oretical and the gospel plan of salvation. A theoretical 
knowledge of God does not make a man like God. Satan 
knows him well, and yet he is the prince of devils. 

A man's religion must be more than a mere s\ 7 stem of 
morality. Moral beauty is not a correct criterion by which 
to judge of the presence or absence of spiritual life. Moral- 
ity has its basis in human conduct; and, while it may dic- 
tate the course of action, it is utterly powerless to move the 
soul in the ways of life and salvation. Spirituality is the 
inward power that moves the soul heavenward. In fact, it 
is the center of all genuine morality. For the Spirit only 
can give adequate, expression to the intensity of our moral 
nature, Man must learn that this spiritual code applies to 
his internal life rather than to his external conduct. It has 
to do with the feelings and functions of the soul rather than 
with the form and ceremonies to which the body may be sub- 



10 




THE YOUNG CHRIST. 



"The whole earth is full of his glory. 
(Isa. vi. 3.) 



TRUE RELIGION. 243 

ject. The soul of the formalist is criminal. Its thoughts 
and acts are both selfish and carnal, and it adds hypocri- 
sy to crime in maintaining an outward conformity to the 
requirements of a code of spiritual laws with which it is not 
in harmony. Spirituality is absolutely essential to true mo- 
rality; for in the absence of the Divine Spirit the carnal 
mind of man soon loses the delicacy of its moral percep- 
tions, and constantly drifts aAvay even from the require- 
ments of the better code of moral ethics. 

True religion consists in the proper worship of the true 
and living God. It is of Divine origin, and manifests it- 
self most effectually in a spotless spiritual life. It is the 
only religion calculated to restore the human soul and refine 
and elevate man's fallen nature. It is designed to regulate 
and rectify all the exercises of the saved soul, and it is the 
only religion that can possibly meet the spiritual wants of 
the human family. This religion encircles the entire race 
in its rich provisions of saving grace. And it is perfectly 
adapted to the wants of all classes and conditions of hu- 
manity. Through faith its spiritual truths properly affect 
the hearts and lives of the children of men everywhere. Its 
tendency is to draw all hearts to one common center of af- 
fection. But only those who find within their own souls a 
correspondence with the Divine environment need flatter 
themselves that they are in possession of true evangelical 
religion. 

Restoration is a cardinal doctrine of our holy religion. 
A beautiful old legend tells us that wherever the infant foot 
of the young Christ touched the desert sands, on his return 
from Egypt to Palestine, the roses of Jericho burst into 



244 REGENERATION MOMENTARY. 

being, blossomed in beauty, and filled the air with richest 
fragrance. This is only a legend, but it finds its counter- 
part in the restoration of human hearts. Only let the im- 
print of Divine love be left upon the soil of the saved soul, 
and the wilderness waste is at once converted into the gar- 
den of the Lord. In restoration the carnal in man sinks to 
its minimum, the spiritual rises to its maximum, and a tide 
of holy joy, wonderful in its sweep and sway, rushes 
through the saved soul, lifting it at once up to the plane 
of a higher and holier life. 

Regeneration is always momentary. It is instantaneous, 
not in reference to the human preparation for, but as relates 
to, the Divine work in restoring life to the dead soul. 
But in this new birth, as in the old, the real moment of 
change is not always the conscious moment. The period 
between death and life is of necessity an inconsiderably 
short one; for death is the absence of life, and hence must 
take its departure immediately on the arrival of its supplant- 
er. Life can only come suddenly to the dead soul. At one 
moment it is spiritually dead; at the next it is spiritually 
alive, whether conscious of the fact or not. The soul is 
not always conscious even of its own existence; much less, 
then, is it always conscious of its real state of existence at 
any given time. But when Christ is finally formed in the 
heart, the hope of glory, every faculty of the soul bows in 
willing obeisance to the Divine will. Even the imagination 
folds her silvery wings in silent, humble adoration at the 
foot of the cross. 

True, Salvation has its mysteries. A man may feel its 
lightning flashes ran along the fibers of his spiritual being 




J 


C £~.C 


£ 


d Q ^ 


1— 1 


_c ^3 -^ O 


< 
< 


listet 
but 
whit 

born 




j <w 'o 


ft 


■- o £ 2 

„ © e3 


& 


3> *H +j 

h o> _T d ^ 


o 


^£5> 


PQ 




W 


■^ O O od 


PQ 


% > a b- 


H 


■§ * « > « 

£2 +J o £ C 


(/) 


-n *> e "fl 


P 


5 a)^«b 




^ g * «r 


>H 


?gfii 



XJ 03 O ft 

£3 <u MOT 



REVELATIONS OF NATURE. 247 

like electric fire, until it fills his soul with joys unspeak- 
able and full of glory, but he can never fully comprehend 
its nature nor solve its strange phenomena. Its modes of 
operation are its secret mysteries, which belong to God. 
Spirit baptism is surrounded by a region of mysteries even 
to the regenerate man. Spiritual things can only be dis- 
cerned by the spiritually minded, hence to many regener- 
ation is the outstanding and insurmountable barrier between 
them and the spiritual kingdom. Neither the necessity nor 
yet the possibility of a soul birth is understood by them. 
They still fail to see why, of their own right and by their 
own efforts, they may not enter the kingdom of God. 

In fact, there are may mysteries connected with our holy 
religion. There are truths partly revealed and partly con- 
cealed. There are truths pertaining to the Infinite and Eter- 
nal, which lie like beautiful islands in the vast ocean of 
mysteries, with only their heads above the fathomless wa- 
ters which surround and almost hide them from human 
vision. But God sees and knows the foundations upon 
which they rest, and the material out of which they are 
built. They are no mysteries to him, and in his own good 
time he will reveal them more fully unto his children. 

The revelations of nature are not less mysterious to the 
illiterate than those of revealed religion are to the learned. 
Many unquestionable facts stand out upon the face of na- 
ture while the modes of their existence are still among the 
secret things which baffle the researches of the human mind. 
The laws of organic and animal life are full of hidden secrets. 
Then it is not so strange, after all, that we mil fully to com- 
prehend many of the mysteries of the laws of spiritual life. 



248 NECESSARILY SUPERNATURAL. 

Biology, the science of life, throws much light upon this 
subject. According to the analogies of this science, spirit- 
ual life naturally dawns suddenly upon the soul, without 
previous observation; for, like all other forms of life, it is in- 
visible. We cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it go- 
eth. Its manifestations are so many surprises from its in- 
duction up through its gradual developments from babyhood 
to full grown manhood in the divine life. 

The Religion of the Cross is necessarily supernatural. The 
acts of" Divinity are naturally above those of humanity. 
Hence reason dictates that many of the revelations of a Di- 
vine Being must, of necessity, be both supernatural and su- 
perhuman. The marks of Divine power placed upon the Re- 
ligion of the Cross were essential to its acceptance as of Di- 
vine origin. The miraculous works of Christ were but the 
credentials he bore as a Divine Redeemer and Savior. And 
yet the religion of Jesus neither materializes nor spiritualizes 
everything it touches. This religion itself has both a body 
and a soul. It is neither a mysticism on the one hand nor 
a materialism on the other hand. The doctrines essential to 
salvation lie between these two extremes. The faith of his 
followers is not fettered, neither are their feelings placed in 
bondage by the Author of our holy religion. Thank God, 
coercion is an unknown element in the ethics of Christianity. 
All the real freedom this sin-rent and sin-ridden w 7 orld ever 
has known or ever will know" finds its origin in the Religion 
of the Cross. 

The Religion of the Cross is distinguished from every other 
religion by its spirituality. It brings a heavenly life to an 
earthly being. It introduces man into a world of spiritual or- 



THE SPIRITUAL REALM. 249 

der, beautjr, harmony, and happiness. It enables him to look 
at all things, whether earthly or heavenly, from a different 
standpoint. It gives him a new heaven and a new earth. A 
mere reformation of life is easily effected by the law of a car- 
nal commandment, but the regeneration of the soul is al- 
ways accomplished through the agency of the Holy Spirit. 
Every effect demands an adequate cause, and there can be 
no such cause for a saved and sanctified soul except the pres- 
ence and power of the Holy Spirit in the heart and life of the 
faithful follower of Christ. His life is far from spiritual 
whose only contact with religion is through the theological 
formulas and sectarian dogmas of the Church. 

The spiritual realm, then, is not a vague, indefinite air 
castle, but a fair and faultless domain, furnished with facts 
the most familiar, and governed by laws as fundamental and 
definitely enunciated as any known in the natural world. 
Only let the light of nature's laws run through the realm of 
the spiritual, and religious truth is just as clearly seen as are 
the broadest lines of science. The Great Teacher often re- 
vealed the grandest truths of the spiritual by the most com- 
monplace and familiar references to the natural world. In 
fact, the natural world is more than a mere image of the spir- 
itual; it is the counterpart of the spiritual, just as the body 
is the counterpart of the soul. And yet the spiritual world 
is not wholly covered by natural law. There is still room 
left for the supernatural in the mysterious realms of the spir- 
itual. Even when w T e have reached the limit of natural law 
in the spiritual world, there still remains a region lying 
wholly within the realm of the supernatural which must be 
traversed by faith rather than by sight. 



250 LIFE DEVELOPMENT. 

Spiritual life unfolds itself from a spiritual germ implant- 
ed in the soul at regeneration, just as naturally as the flower 
is developed from the bud, or the oak from the acorn. The 
Christian is born of the Spirit, not made by moral efforts, 
and his character is developed from a living principle within 
not manufactured by additions from without. His fruits are 
the outgrowth of that secret germ implanted and sustained by 
the Living Spirit, which hath since taken up his abode in him. 

Mystery is no less associated with spiritual growth than it is 
with the- spiritual birth or baptism. Real growth is always 
mysterious. The principle of life is lodged in the soul, but 
the conditions of life development are to be found largely in 
its environments. Hence the problem of spiritual growth is 
solved when we preserve the right attitude toward God and 
man. Perfect spiritual development depends upon a full cor- 
respondence with one's spiritual environments. To neglect 
its spiritual relations is to deprive the soul of its divine right 
to the most important of all evolutions. If but one vital or- 
gan of the body fail in its correspondence with the natural 
world, death is the inevitable result. So the soul which has no 
correspondence with its spiritual environment is of necessi- 
ty spiritually dead. It is a living corpse — alive to its human 
but dead to its divine interests. 

The spiritual world was a chaos of ruins, each orb revolv- 
ing in disorder and confusion among its fellows, until the 
Sun of Righteousness, like a mighty magnet, with its gra- 
cious attractions, became so powerful that many souls feel- 
ing its Divine influence and efficacy were drawn to and now 
revolve harmoniously around it as the acknowledged Central 
Light of the spiritual universe. 



CHRIST THE CENTER. 251 

Christ is the Center of his own marvelous system of reli- 
gion. To him gave all the prophets witness, to him all the 
apostles pointed, and unto him all true believers look for 
life and salvation. He is the object of the supreme love and 
adoration of the Church universal. He is the Kino* of kingrs 
and Lord of lords to whom we cheerfully render the alle- 
giance of consecrated subjects — the obedience of loving, de- 
voted hearts. All the ethical teachings of the Gospel point 
to Christ as the fullness of perfection. He is the Center of 
the Gospel's light and life and love. "When we grasp the 
full force of this fact we find our faith resting upon a firm 
foundation. 

Prophecy and history meet in Christ. The greatest events 
of time gather their inspiration from the cross of Calvary. 
The Father's thoughts for the world all cluster around his 
Crucified Son. Prior to the crucifixion all men looked for- 
ward to the cross; but afterwards all look backward for the 
blessings of life and salvation. Christ came as a Divine 
Leaven into the human lump, and the vilest sinner may feel 
the glow of health and the Spirit of Healing. He is the se- 
cret power in the Religion of the Cross, which is so well cal- 
culated to lift us higher and fill us fuller of heaven than we 
have ever been before. The mightiest force that touches the 
world to-day, to uplift and purify it, is the ever-increasing* 
magnetic power of the crucified Son of God. And this po- 
tential force is destined ultimately to lift this wicked world 
out of the sinks of sin into the sunlight of Grod's eternal love. 

Only in the Peligion of the Cross can there be unanimity 
among men in their efforts to promote the general welfare 
of humanity. Christianity is itself a magnificent unity em- 



252 THE IMMACULATE CHRIST. 

bodying the greatest possible diversity. It answers the 
deepest yearnings and highest aspirations of the sincere 
soul. It turns man's gloomiest night into a radiant day, and 
floods the soul with the light of life and immortal glory. It 
fosters literature, poetry, music, and all the fine arts, and 
moves forward to the conquest of the world in the strength 
of its own inherent power. To look for supreme good in any 
religion that does not impart purity and love to the soul is 
to forfeit the peace and happiness for which we seek. This 
religion furnishes the only key to human happiness. It 
points out the brightest and most glorious future to the child 
of God. It places the pearl of great price within our posses- 
sion, and the prize of Christian perfection within the reach 
of those who seek it through Christ, our perfect Exemplar. 

This religion keeps us from under the shadows by lifting 
us above the clouds incident to this earth life. Every lover 
of the Lord may take refuge from the storms of earth be- 
neath the banner of his protecting power. As Christians we 
ought to take a more practical view of our holy religion. 
This would doubtless enable us more devoutly to adore and 
humbly to serve the Immaculate Christ. In the presence of 
such a religious life many of the theoretical and theological 
mysteries of the day would melt away before our spiritual 
vision, like mist amid the sunlight of heaven, or sorrows on 
the burdened soul of penitence before the light of the Sun 
of Righteousness, which shines away its sins. This is the 
religion that challenges our admiration. The dignity of its 
methods, the magnificence of its aims, the certainty of its 
hopes, and the glory of its future all entitle it to our most 
hearty and unqualified indorsement 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 253 

Christian ethics, unlike social or moral ethics, looks to the 
development of all our higher and holier powers. Man 
cannot of himself rise above his natural condition. He is 
just as dependent upon God for spiritual culture as are the 
lower animals upon their masters for food and training. 
^Nature provides in the happiest possible way for the natural 
man, but the spiritual man cries out for the living God. 
Man is capable of both receiving and imparting culture. In 
his creative innocence he cultured the garden as God cul- 
tured him, and this was the golden age of his past history. 

The Holy Spirit is the complement of a religious life just 
as truly as nature is of a natural life. In God the soul finds 
provisions for all its wants, scope for the exercise of all its 
faculties, and an infinite fullness which makes him a satisfy- 
ing portion to his people. Hence the finite finds its highest 
good in assimilation to the Infinite. Acquiescence in the 
supreme will should be the ultimate aim and end of a reli- 
gious life, for those human beings nearest allied to the 
Divine are both the holiest and happiest creatures on earth. 

The Christian life is not always a true exponent of our 
holy religion. We too often fail to live up to the require- 
ments of the Divine Word. We fall not so much from as 
for the want of Divine grace to uphold us in the race of 
life. But this falling is not apostasy, in the common ac- 
ceptation of that term. It does not imply the loss of our 
religion, or the spiritual death, of a once regenerated soul. 
Falling from grace, or backsliding, as we sometimes term 
it, is simply the opposite of growth in grace, or spiritual ad- 
vancement in the Divine life. There is no neutral ground 
for the Christian to occupy. He is necessarily either on the 



254 PERFECT SECURITY. 

up grade or down grade in his religious experience. With 
all of us religion has its ebbs and its flows, its high and low 
tides. Occasionally we reach the mountain tops; too often 
we dwell content in the valleys below\ 

The child of God is confirmed in a state of perfect secu- 
rity when baptized with the Holy Ghost. His spiritual life 
is then hid with Christ in God. The Father's bosom is the 
Divine urn in which this sacred treasure is deposited volun- 
tarily for time and eternity. Then it can never be lost. At 
this juncture the Christian, with all his heart, accepts Christ 
for time and eternity. He covenants with him for eternal 
life. So, if he is preserved to the end of this life and eter- 
nally saved, we need not be surprised. This is no evidence 
that his free moral agency has been infringed upon in the 
least; for, if apostasy is not essential to our free agency 
in heaven, neither is it essential on earth. The saint is kept 
by the power of God through faith to the end of his earthly 
pilgrimage, but the believer may apostatize and be eter- 
nally lost. 

Growth in grace is a natural process, proceeding accord- 
ing to natural laws. Its leading factor is found in the in- 
fluence of environment. The goal of development in the 
divine life is perfection in our sphere even as God is per- 
fect in his sphere. This perfection must be sought by the 
saved soul while sustaining a perfect relation to its God, 
for holiness of heart and purity of life are the absolute es- 
sentials to the best possible growth in grace. This spiritual 
development is simply a higher form of evolution than that 
of natural development. Along the lines of natural devel- 
opment moral perfection is not attainable. Morality may 



SPIRITUAL AND MORAL GROWTH. 255 

reach a high plane in the natural man, but it requires the 
finishing touches of spiritual development to elevate one to 
the higher sphere of that relative perfection attainable in 
life only by the saints of God. 

There is this difference between the spiritual and the mor- 
al growth: The first is vital and from within; the last is for- 
mal and from without. One is natural , the other, super- 
natural. The spiritualist develops from the center; the mor- 
alist, from the circumference. Hence while morality is 
weak, spirituality is strong, with a reserve force to fall back 
on in the hour of temptation. The all-important work of 
the Christian is to utilize the omnipotent energies of the 
spiritual life within him, just as men of the world harness 
the powers of nature with which to accomplish their pur- 
poses in this life. 

The soul has three distinct sets of faculties — the mental, 
the moral, and the spiritual. The mental faculties have to 
do with our intellectual status among men; our moral fac- 
ulties, with our moral characters in this world; and our spir- 
itual faculties, with our spiritual lives and standing before 
God. Hence the highest of these is the spiritual; and it 
ought to dominate the other two, bringing them into perfect 
harmony with the spiritual life within. The spirit is the in- 
ner life of the soul. The body is the temple, the soul is the 
holy place, and the spirit the holy of holies, where God 
deigns to make special manifestations of the Divine pres- 
ence. 

Faith is the receptive attitude of the soul. It is the open, 
empty hand of spiritual poverty, held out in humility for the 
Divine blessings. Such faith gives union and communion 



256 PERFECT ASSURANCE. 

with the Triune God. It begins where reason ends, and 
looks to the unseen and eternal of God's promises. Earth- 
ly objects are no longer the treasure of such a soul. "World- 
ly attachments may still exist, but they are subordinated to 
heavenly anticipations. And when this sanctified soul quits 
the body it leaves the solitudes and sorrows of earth to meet 
the objects of its supreme affections in that world where 
sorrows never come and joys never end. 

The Religion of the Cross gives perfect assurance to the 
saved soul. The Holy Spirit writes upon every purified 
heart the most positive evidence of Divine acceptance. 
And not being at all skeptical himself, he leaves none whom 
he seals unto eternal redemption in the least doubt as to 
their reception of the gift of eternal life. He may not al- 
ways point them to the time and place of its reception, but 
of the fact itself he never leaves one ignorant nor doubtful 
to whom he bears testimony on this point. The saint need 
not be less positive of his eternal inheritance than he is of 
his natural existence. He may be just as conscious of one 
as of the other, after the Holy Spirit has once witnessed 
with his spirit that he is the Lord's, in the bonds of an ever- 
lasting covenant. 

But this sweet assurance is not limited to the present life. 
It compasses the life to come. The saint's title to heaven is 
just as secure as the perfect obedience of Christ could pos- 
sibly make it. It is just as perfect as the Savior's itself, for 
we are joint heirs with him to the same eternal inheritance. 
His righteousness has been imparted or imputed unto us 
through faith in his name. He has become our securi- 
ty, therefore we are safe so long as he is solvent. The Di- 



THE SAINT'S INVESTMENT. 257 

vine law can make no demand on as which we are not able 
to meet in Christ unless he fails. Bat he can never fail, 
therefore the saved and sealed of God are eternally safe. 
Their hope is an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, 
entering into that within the veil. The sweetest and most 
perfect assurance is the birthright of every child of grace, 
only let each one claim it. AYe cannot trust to good works 
for salvation, neither can we rely upon the iron fence of un- 
conditional election to hedge us in; we must through grace 
let the faith of the heart bound the horizon of our hopes if 
we would have them prove sure and steadfast in their assur- 
ances to the end of time. 

The saint's investment, then, is the safest and grandest 
that man ever made. His religion is a sure indemnity 
again t all financial failures and spiritual bankruptcies. It 
calms the troubled spirit, diminishes the aspirations of earth, 
and magnifies the anticipations of heaven until the sanctified 
soul, forgetting the joys of the present, revels in the glories 
of the future life. Only let a man's mind be thoroughly ab- 
sorbed in, and his soul perfectly permeated with, the life- 
giving power of our holy religion, and you will have a reli- 
gious character fully exemplifying the purity and power of 
the Religion of the Cross. 

The religious life is one of self-denial and cross bearing 
but in comparison with those of a sinful life its yoke is easy 
and its burdens are light. Burdens faithfully borne are a 
blessing to those who bear them. They keep us from drift- 
ing with the world into sin and transgression against God. 
This life is full of comfort and solace for the sorrowing soul. 

It administers the balm of Gilead to the troubled spirit. It 
17 



258 UNIVERSAL VICTORY. 

is the grandest and best life we can possibly live in this 
world. 

The Christian life is a race to be run, a battle to be fought, 
and a victory to be won. 

Soldiers! soldiers of redeeming grace, 
Gird your armors on in haste; 
March at the command of your Captain brave, 
Your friends and your foes alike to save. 

Chorus. 
Fight on ! fight on ! ye soldiers brave ; 
Press the battle to the grave ; 
And the resurrection day 
Will crown you all with victory. 

Lift the Gospel banner high, 
And bid her float both far and nigh 
Over hearts as bold and true 
As ever wore the gray or blue. 

March in love over land and sea, 
Till love sets nation after nation free ; 
Then listen to the holy, heavenly strain 
Which ushers in Christ's millennial reign. 

Christianity is destined to universal victory. She has al- 
ready entered the gates of every nation under heaven. Her 
broad white wings of love and mercy overshadow all the 
tribes, kindred, and people of earth, from the rising to the 
setting sun. Her most excellent codes give cast and color- 
ing to all the laws pertaining to the social, moral, and spirit- 
ual statutes of the w T orld. Christianity, deeply impregnated 
with Divine truth, has been the reigning power over the 
hearts and consciences of the wisest and best men and worn- 



AN OLD JEWISH TRADITION. 259 

en of all ages in the world's history. It is the pivotal point 
from which God proposes, with the lever of eternal truth, to 
lift the world from its poles of selfishness and sensuality 
into the light and liberty of an endless life. 

The Religion of the Cross in its purity and power is to 
spread over all the earth. The fullness of the Gentiles is to 
come in, and all Israel is to be saved. Sorrow and sighing 
shall flee away, and joy and gladness fill the whole earth. 
A golden age is the prophetic picture of the millennial reign 
of Christ. It will be a return of Paradistical joys. The 
lamb and the lion shall lie down together in peace; the 
dove and the eagle be alike innocent and harmless; and 
field and forest, land and sea, join in the sweet refrain. The 
righteous dead will rise to reign with Christ on earth for a 
thousand years, and the world's jubilee will have dawned. 

There was an old Jewish tradition to the effect that the 
world was to stand just seven thousand years. Two thousand 
having closed the patriarchal dispensation, the Mosaic was 
to last two thousand and the Messianic two thousand, leav- 
ing one thousand for the Sabbatical Millennium. I have long 
thought that in all probability at the end of the six thousand 
years the millennial reign would be ushered in, and the world 
would have its Sabbatical Jubilee of a thousand years of 
peace and righteousness. 




CHAPTER XIT. 

THE DIVINE LOVE. 

But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. xiii. 13, K. V.) 

OVE is unique. There is nothing like it. It 
sways a universal scepter. It reigns without a 
rival. It may be either right or wrong. The 
degree often decides the character of love. The 
object of our affections frequently fixes the fate or fortune of 
the lover. Love is not an entity, but a mysterious power felt 
by all hearts and affecting more or less all lives. It is either 
elevating or debasing, ennobling or degrading, and ulti- 
mately leads to happiness or misery, to heaven or to hell. 

There are three kinds of love which are commendable and 
right in their respective spheres — love as a sentiment, a pas- 
sion, and a principle. A lady says: "I love flowers, poetry, 
and music." This is love as a sentiment. The sentiment of 
love pertains to the intellectual faculties, and is fed by what 
is called the poetry of life. It feasts upon the finer spec- 
imens of painting, sculpture, architecture, and poetry — 
anything that exhibits genius in its conception or skill in 
its construction. It revels amid flowery dales, moun- 
tain scenery, magnificent waterfalls, the gorgeous drapery 
of sunset clouds, and the calm, serene, and holy beauty of 
the midnight skies — anything that gives evidence of extra 
mental power in its design or artistic beauty or merit in its 

execution. Any action we may witness that is disinterested, 

(260) 




DIVINE LOVE. 



"Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his 
friends." (John xv. 13.) 



LOVE AS A PRINCIPLE. 263 

generous, noble, or Christlike naturally excites within us 
the sentiment of love. This species of love is always salu- 
tary in its influence, if not carried to excess. It naturally 
refines and elevates those under its sway. 

A man says: "I love my father and mother, wife and chil- 
dren." This is love as a passion. The passion of love is 
inherent in the animal nature. It is not necessarily sinful, 
but often chaste, beautiful, and ennobling. Such is the 
love that breaks forth in merry, ringing tones from the 
tongue of the bright, sunny child; that drops in whispered 
utterance from the lips of the young, under the spell of a 
mutual attraction; that comes warm from the mother's 
heart, in accents of soothing tenderness, as she bends over 
her sick and suffering child. And such also is the love sug- 
gestive of hallowed, associations and precious memories to 
all who have experienced the joys of confiding friendship 
and self-sacrificing affection. 

The saint says: "I love God supremely, and my fellow- 
men as myself." This is love, as a great religious principle, 
imparted by the Holy Spirit in the circumcision of the heart 
not made with hands. The principle of love is imbedded in 
our spiritual nature, and our enemies as well as our friends 
are the recipients of its blessings. This is the love urged 
upon us in the Bible, and streaming upon us from the Cross. 
It is the love exercised by the Christian that links the 
heart consciously to its God. It is the love of benevolence, 
world-wide in its desires to better the condition of sinning, 
suffering humanity. It is a living, active, energetic love, 
powerful to ameliorate the condition of mankind; for, when- 
ever exercised, it banishes hatred, envy, malice, and re- 



264 THE VOICE OF DIVINE LOVE. 

venge, and makes men holier and happier by paving with 
real joys and living hopes the highway of holiness, leading 
up to heaven and to God. 

God is not a phlegmatic abstraction, an awful being with- 
out feeling or affection for his creatures. He is rather a 
God possessed of the most positive and active love for all 
men. And he has not been slow T to manifest this love in 
every conceivable way. When he made man he gave him 
eyes to behold the beauties of nature, ears to hear the music 
of the world, hands to handle the things of time and sense, a 
nose to drink in the fragrance of earth, and a tongue to 
taste the good things provided for him in this life. And 
when he had fallen, the gift of his Son was the Father's 
crowning evidence of his unfaltering love for his unfortunate 
creatures. The Creator's love of benevolence ever has 
sought the w^ell-being and happiness of all his creatures. 
The voice of the Lord in the Garden of Eden was the voice 
of Divine love. The Father's forbearance is an evidence 
that he desires to win all men back to his face and favor. 
The warnings of the ages have been those of an affectionate 
Father for his wayward children. God's love of benevo- 
lence has always been universal, while his love of compla- 
cency is necessarily limited to those who strive to please 
him in lives consecrated to his delightful service. 

The mother's affections furnish us the best earthly type 
of the Father's great love for fallen man. In his innocent 
infancy the devoted mother looks into the sweet face and 
laughing eyes of her darling babe, where so much of heaven 
lies mirrored, and feels the full tide of maternal love sweep- 
ing through her sanctified soul. Next to her God she loves 




A MOTHER'S DEVOTION. 



"Behold, thy father and I sought thee 
sorrowing - ." (Luke ii. 48, R. V.) 



GOD IS LOVE. '267 

her boy; and night alter night she watches over him with 
mingled tears, prayers, and benedictions, as he lingers be- 
tween life and death. He lives, and her love follows him 
up to manhood's years. He is a condemned criminal now, 
waiting the day of execution. But, with a love that falters 
not, the mother still clings to her disgraced and ruined son. 
So our Heavenly Father loves all his children with a love 
that knows no end, but grow T s stronger and shines brighter 
in the hour of its greatest need. Listen! a voice comes 
ringing dow T n the ages, saying: Though the mother may 
forget her child, I will not forget thee. 

Human love turns a man loose when it considers him no 
longer worthy of its affections; but Divine love lives on, no 
matter how unworthy the objects of its affections may prove 
to be. It never casts one off because he is unworthy. 
Good or bad, the Lord loves us still. God hates sin with an 
eternal hatred, but loves the sinner with an everlasting love. 
Then there is a great difference between human and Divine 
love. The one is immeasurably superior to the other in its in- 
finite amplitude, purity, and power. The Divine love runs like 
a mighty rolling river through the truly contrite heart, thrill- 
it with joys unspeakable and full of glory. It courses its 
way through the sanctified soul as an overflowing stream, 
filling its every avenue with all the fullness of God. It per- 
meates the entire being of the truly consecrated Child of 
Gocl, giving the deepest and richest experience known to 
the human heart in this life. 

God is love, not in essence, but in character. God is not 
literally love, but love is the predominating attribute of Deity. 
It is the controlling principle in the Divine nature. God is 



268 LOVE LIES AT THE FOUNDATION. 

governed in all things by the purest principles of unselfish 
and unsophisticated love. Love is the grand, distinguish- 
ing characteristic of Deity, whether exercised by God the 
Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. God is the 
fountain head of all true affection, the center of all real be- 
nevolence, the source of every genuine emotion of love as a 
great religious principle. 

Love lies at the foundation of Christian character. It is 
the inseparable bond of union between God and man. It 
is not a mere evanescent emotion of the heart, but an in- 
wrought and abiding principle in the saved soul. Man is 
simply its recipient, not its originator. It sounds the deepest 
depths of his sanctified soul, and folds his inmost thoughts 
and affections in its tender embraces. It is a wonderful 
constraining as well as restraining power. It does not sim- 
ply keep us out of the ways of sin and death, but it also 
forces us into the active currents of religious life and ear- 
nest labor for the Master. Development is the law of love 
that leads to Christian perfection. Christians, in harmony 
with this law of love, develop from mere babes to strong 
and vigorous men and women in the Lord, with grand sym- 
metrical, spiritual characters which will sustain them during 
the latter years when age stands trembling on the verge of 
time, the border land of eternity. 

This Divine love not only emanates from, but it also re- 
turns to, God. It makes its circuit just as naturally and as 
certainly as the waters return to their parent ocean through 
the channels of the mighty rivers, and it necessarily carries 
those who embark upon its moving currents back to their 
Father God. Only let humanity at large throw itself unre- 



LOVE INDEED. 269 

servedly upon the gracious waves of Divine love, and be 
wafted to that celestial city which glitters under the am- 
bient light and glories of heaven's eternal day. 

God's love for the world is love indeed. It has been look- 
ing down upon fallen humanity through all the ages of the 
past. It has been mixed and mingled with every thought 
and word and act relative to our present life or future des- 
tiny, whether of approbation toward the righteous or of 
vengeance upon the wicked. This universal love has per- 
meated the entirety of the Triune Existence. It has over- 
shadowed every other attribute of the Godhead. It has 
been entirely unselfish. It has had no personal interests at 
stake, no personal ends to compass. The leaven of this Di- 
vine love is slowly but surely permeating the saved of hu- 
manity, and gradually elevating us from the depth of de- 
pravity into which we had fallen to the supernal heights of 
the highest spiritual enjoyments possible in this life. God's 
love does not merely lead men to repentance, but it gradually 
lures them on. toward that world of light and life beyond 
the glittering worlds above. 

This Divine love is the purest, sweetest note sounded by 
the gospel harp. It sends a thrill of joy and gladness 
through the saved soul of the penitent sinner. It beams 
like a bow of promise in life's darkest hours, through the 
densest clouds which overshadow this sin-cursed world of 
ours. It is the Christian's guardian, guiding angel, through 
the darkest perils of his earthly pilgrimage. 

God's love is often slighted, rejected, and even scorned, 
by those it seeks to save. But the soul that closes its door 
against the light and refuses to be swayed by the power of 



270 MANIFESTATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE. 

Divine love, need never hope to find the prize for which it 
seeks, the pearl of greatest price. For, without this guid- 
ing star, no man can find, much less follow, through life the 
Royal Road of Righteousness, no matter how pure his pur- 
poses or commendable his motives may chance to be. But 
only let this Divine love become the reigning power over, 
and the ruling principle in, the heart, and it will soon dif- 
fuse its sweet perfume into all the chambers of the sancti- 
fied soul, and all other loves will soon become subordinate 
to and partake largely of its elevating and ennobling quali- 
ties. The love that rules the man's heart will regulate his 
life. It will enter into all his purposes and impart its like- 
ness to all his plans. It will mingle with all his desires, 
shape all his thoughts, affect all his feelings, and give color 
and countenance to all his actions. If it be the principle of 
love, it will prove to be the most charming power ever felt 
in the human heart or manifested in the human life. 

The manifestations of Divine love have been many and 
marvelous. They have swept over the entire history of the 
human family. Nature and grace are teeming with them. 
The creation, redemption, and restoration of man to the Di- 
vine favor are all epochs in human history accompanied by 
the special manifestations of Divine love. The Divine be- 
nevolence streams upon us in a perfect flood of light in all 
his dealings with our sinful race. The human heart is pow- 
erless to appreciate, and there is no method of manifesting 
greater love than that exhibited in the dual death of Christ 
upon the cruel cross. 

The Father had not revealed the Divine love in all its full- 
ness until the day of our redemption. For the highest and 



THE DRAMATIC METHOD. 271 

holiest love that heaven had to bestow upon earth could be 
made manifest only in the redemptive and sacrificial death 
of the Son of God. Such a revelation was more than a mere 
definition of Divine love. It was a clear demonstration of this 
love in action, manifested to the world, with all the func- 
tions and affinities of the Divine nature united and in sym- 
pathy with the human. Yes, the Father's gift of his only 
Son was the grandest exhibition of Divine love the world 
has ever witnessed. 

The modes of the Divine manifestations possess powers 
peculiarly adapted to affect most successfully human hearts. 
Divine love is so exhibited in the life and death of Christ as 
very greatly to augment its power in and over the human 
soul. The dramatic method employed — the grouping of life 
actions, imbued with the colorings of deepest emotions, is 
best calculated to awaken in the human heart the deepest 
sympathies and strongest affections for the Divine Sufferer 
of Gethsemane. Fiction itself, the mere creation of fancy, 
wonderfully affects the human heart, though we may be per- 
fectly conscious of its falsity. But when facts are drama- 
tized in the form of Divine truths, fully developing the force 
of the Divine faculties and affections in a severe crisis, it very 
naturally awakens a responsive echo in all the chambers of 
the human soul. Thus in a manner adapted to the constitu- 
tion of man is the attention most successfully attracted and 
the faculties of the soul most forcibly impressed with the 
great exhibition of Divine love in the sufferings and death 
of the Son of God. 

"When a man contemplates this wonderful exhibition of 
Divine love it naturally begets love in return. And this af- 



272 THIS DIVINE LOVE. 

finity of affection, springing up between God and man, sup- 
plants all unholy affections, inspires new hopes in the heart, 
creates new purposes in the soul, and the man moves on in his 
life of obedience and love toward the upper and better world. 
This Divine love demands our love in return. Love is es- 
sential to every acceptable act of devotion rendered by man to 
his Maker. Obedience to God, from selfish motives, rather 
than from heartfelt affection, is at least sinful, if not wickedly 
mean. The true Christian obeys the Father as a matter of 
choice, rather than from a mere sense of obligation. The true 
lover of the Lord delights in obedience to the requirements 
of the object of his supreme affection. 

This Divine love shed abroad in the human heart would 
always guide us into unselfish and unsectarian efforts to ben- 
efit humanity at large. It points without partiality first to 
those who need most our sympathies and assistance and bids 
us administer to its legitimate objects in proportion to the 
measure of our ability and the magnitude of their sev- 
eral wants. True love always labors first and most for 
those in greatest need of human help. This is the love that 
prompted the Savior to come from heaven to seek and to 
save the loved and lost of earth. 

Jesus is the very embodiment of Divine love. The law 
did not demand, but Divine love prompted, the penal and sac- 
rificial offerings of the Sinless Christ. Such a death was su- 
per-legal, and hence sufficiently meritorious to counterbal- 
ance the effects of sin in the soul and restore the penitent 
sinner to his lost estate. His infinite merit is forever plead- 
ing for the people of his love, and his intercessions often 
open the gates of Paradise to the objects of his affections. 




CHRIST'S LOVE. (Plockhorst.) 



18 



"Know the love of Christ, which pass- 
eth knowledge." (Eph. iii. 19.) 



THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 275 

Among the tenderest words that ever fell from his lips were 
those uttered on the night of his betrayal, giving expression 
to his heartfelt affection for his bereaved disciples. And it 
is the privilege of all who love him sincerely to lean, like 
John, upon his throbbing bosom. It is his delight to en- 
circle all his faithful followers unreservedly in the arms of 
his own everlasting love. We cannot fully appreciate 
Christ's love for us, because it reaches out into the fathom- 
less depths where no plummet can sound and no saint com- 
prehend its infinite fullness. 

The love of Christ and the devoted saint is mutual, and in 
this reciprocal affection the saved soul finds its richest 
blessings and greatest enjoyment. It makes our labors for 
his cause the primary object of life. It rallies us to the 
rescue of the wronged and wretched of earth with our ex- 
pressions of sympathy and offers of assistance. It loosens 
our purse strings for the benefit of all men. If we love the 
Savior, we love those for whom he died. Love for Christ 
begets in us a love for humanity at large. The highest in- 
terests and holiest impulses of the Christian heart unite in 
moving and guiding the saved in their efforts to save others. 
This love can never do nor suffer enough for Jesus' sake. 
It seeks after and is satisfied only with that supreme good 
which God gives to the sincere soul that constantly feels 
and readily yields to its magic power. 

Love is the most successful of all lawgivers. Its com- 
mands are irresistible. They must be immediately obeyed. 
When man's affections are fixed upon Christ, his will is at 
once drawn into union with the Divine will, and the burn- 
ing desire of the affectionate soul is to secure through lov- 



276 THE HEART CONTROLS THE HEAD. 

ing obedience the highest regard of its Personal Savior. 
Love conquers the heart; and when the heart yields, all is 
won, and the object of our affections lives and reigns su- 
preme in our souls. Nothing short of supreme love for the 
Savior could ever induce a saved soul to perform good 
works wholly acceptable unto God. This sovereign law of 
love demands that all our virtues be practiced and all our 
good works be performed as manifestations of supreme affec- 
tion for God and universal love for man. 

But we cannot love at our own pleasure. Our affections 
are not the servants of our wdlls. They are not subject to 
them, neither indeed can be. Nor can they be controlled 
by the will of another. The heart often controls .the head 
in love affairs, but the affections seldom, if ever, surrender 
to mere will power. Should we will to love out of harmony 
with our affections, the heart would at once rebel against the 
head. The Divine heart moves only in the sphere of light 
and love; and human affections are never moved and human 
hearts never love until we see, or imagine we see, something 
lovable in the object of our devotions. So it is not until 
the lost soul sees the Divine solicitude in its behalf that its 
affections are magnetized. But when, in restoration, they 
are once spiritually vitalized, the light of Divine love shines 
brightly and broadly over the w T hole horizon of human 
thought and activity, and it clings to the Source of all its 
blessings through the long line of life. For it is the chief 
glory of the cross that it binds together affectionately and 
eternally the true subjects and Sovereign of the spiritual 
universe. 

Man's love to God can be secured only through the mani- 



THIS IS CHRISTLIKE. 277 

festations of Divine love to man. We love him onlv in view 
of the fact that he first loved ns. But this love is absolute- 
ly essential to spiritual life. Knowledge in the absence of 
affection is like sunshine on a cold winter day. It gives 
light, but no life. Light, without, reveals the deadness 
of earthly objects, but does not change their fashion into 
forms of living beauty. So a knowledge of the truth in the 
absence of love but reveals the deadness of the soul to all 
that is good, without transforming its barrenness into func- 
tions vital with spiritual energy and godliness. The union 
of truth and love is to the soul what the union of light and 
heat is to nature. It crowns it with living verdure, makes 
the wilderness place an Eden for loveliness, and trains its 
rarest flowers for transplanting into the Paradise of God. 

Unlike all other love, the Divine love bids us love our en- 
emies. Xot with the love of complacency, gratitude, es- 
teem, or admiration, for this is impossible; but with the love 
of benevolence. Pity your persecutor, be kind to your ad- 
versary, and charitable even to your bitterest enemy. This 
is Christlike, and is the fulfillment of the whole law of 
God. Our love of benevolence must be modeled after that 
of our heavenly Father, who sends the sunshine and show- 
ers alike upon the just and the unjust; and, like his, it 
ought to extend from the narrow circle of our home life to 
the ends of the earth. Our faith in Christ should increase 
until it enlarges the benevolent affections of our souls and 
begets within them burning desires to send the gospel on 
the wings of the wind all round the world. ■ 

God is not responsible for the fact that the light of Di- 
vine Revelation has not already been carried to all people, 



278 FIRE A SYMBOL. 

kindred, and tongues of earth. He commissioned men to 
compass this end, and the fault lies either in the unfaithful- 
ness of his ambassadors or the opposition of his enemies, or 
else the two combined. In any event the Divine love is uni- 
versal; God is clear and man is to blame for the failure so 
far of the Gospel to compass and save the world. 

Wherever it goes salvation is a fire that consumes the sen- 
sual, sinful nature of the soul, and floods its inmost cham- 
bers with the light and glory of Divine love. It is a fire in 
the soul that illuminates the life so that the man becomes a 
light himself to the world— a sun shining by day and by 
night upon the dark and benighted pathway of those by 
whom he is surrounded w r hile in the flesh. The religion of 
the truly consecrated is a red-hot coal from off the Divine 
altar — a living, burning reality, and not a mere dead formal- 
ity without life or love. It is rather a flaming love for 
Christ and those for whom he died, which consumes all self- 
ish interests and devotes us to the Master's service in the 
salvation of the world. Salvation is a baptism of fire from 
the Holy Spirit, hot enough to melt the frozen heart into a 
stream of affection that flows back readily into the great 
ocean of Divine love. 

Fire is the most striking symbol of Divine love. It is the 
basis of our being, and the light of our life. It is potential 
— everywhere present. It is dynamic, running the machin- 
ery of the universe. It is the all-potent factor in the evolu- 
tion of the elements and all the operations of nature. 
Should the Almighty but unstable his fiery steeds, and give 
them full reign for only a few moments, shaking their flam- 
ing manes among the stars, they would paw our mountains 



CELESTIAL FIRE. 279 

into cinders and leave our world a heap of smoldering 
ruins. 

Celestial fire is the life of the Divine essence and the 
light of the glory world. The seraphim are fiery beings with 
Divine love filling and thrilling their sanctified souls with 
perpetual joy and gladness. They are the burning messen- 
gers of a burning love which consumes the rubbish and rel- 
ics of sin, as they lay the live coal from off the Divine Altar 
upon the lips of the believer, as upon Isaiah's. This celes- 
tial love is the life of the saved soul. And those who live to 
love God supremely and their fellows according to the gold- 
en rule of the Gospel will die with heavenly harmonies roll- 
ing through their enraptured souls, and be borne upon the 
broad waves of universal melodies to the better world, where 
they will drink in the glorious symphonies of Divine love 
for evermore. 




CHAPTER XV. 

THE LAWS OF DIYINE BEVELATION. 

Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (Psalm 

cxix. 18.,) 

Y the above caption we do not mean the laws 
governing revealed truth, but those brought to 
light through the medium of Divine Revelation. 
Bible laws are not new, arbitrary enactments, 
but simply recognitions and proclamations of that part of a 
universal law system relating to the moral and spiritual uni- 
verse. 

Law is a rule of action, as it relates to man, whether it be 
social, civic, moral, or spiritual in its nature. God would 
govern all things by laws exactly adapted to their respec- 
tive natures and environments. Law is a universal necessi- 
ty in the divine government. It is absolutely essential to 
the harmonious existence of the universe. Everything is, 
of necessity, under law. God governs the material world 
by physical laws; the irrational, animal creation by the laws 
of instinct; but his rational creatures he would regulate and 
rule by the righteous laws governing civic, social, moral, and 
religious life. 

God sustains several very important relations to our race. 
He is our Creator, for he made us, and not we ourselves. 

He is our Preserver, for he upholds us by the might of his 

(280) 




THE SOUL'S AWAKENING. 



"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me 
in the paths of rig-hteousness for his 
name's sake." (Ps. xxiii. 3.) 



NO LAW IS ABSOLUTE. 283 

power. He is our Benefactor, for we are the beneficiaries 
of his endless bounties. He is our Sovereign, for we are all 
the subjects of his universal empire, Out of these various 
relations arise the right to rule over us for our own good 
and the Divine glory. The Divine law is always designed 
to better the condition of its subjects. Man is not only con- 
scious of his imperfections, but he is capable of endless cul- 
ture. 

Xo law is absolute. The Supreme Lawgiver stands infi- 
nitely above the law, and maintains its honor, in every emer- 
gency, through the Divine merits of one greater than the law. 
Ritual laws were always subordinate to and servitors of the 
moral law. They were simply helps by which obedience to 
the great moral code was made more certain and general. 
The ceremonial law, hoary with age, was doomed to die. 
Its bloody altars were destined to pass into oblivion, and its 
priestly vestments to hang in obscurity save in the annals of 
human history. The Great Antitype of all its types took 
with him its many rites, symbols, and ceremonials, and 
nailed them all to the rugged cross of Calvary. 

The law always lies within the Divine control. Hence 
God works miracles at his own will, at any time. Super- 
human acts attest his miraculous power, in all ages of the 
world's history. It was necessary to its acceptance that 
Divine Revelation be authenticated by miraculous power. 
Many who otherwise would have remained skeptical believed 
on Jesus because of the mighty works which he and his 
apostles did in their presence. But these miracles were 
manifestations of Divine wisdom as well as of Infinite pow- 
er. Each one had its lesson of life for those in whose pres- 



284 NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL REALMS. 

ence and interests they were wrought. The water was 
turned to wine, the blind restored to sight, the lame made to 
leap, the leper cleansed, and the dead brought to life that the 
world might know that Christ was superior to the laws of 
nature and had power upon earth to forgive sin. 

The natural and spiritual realms have a common Author. 
Both of these kingdoms are governed by the same God, and 
many of their laws are similar. Hence the appropriateness 
of the comparisons used by the Savior illustrating the things 
of the Spirit by those of nature, and riveting conviction 
through them upon the souls of the sons of men. Our the- 
ology may be badly out of harmony with natural laws, but 
the Bible finds its basis in the very constitution and course 
of nature. True there are radical distinctions between the 
natural and spiritual worlds which the laws of nature can 
never hope to abolish. And yet in the unity of all creation 
and Divine Revelation, while there is of necessity a com- 
plexity of relations and an infinite variety of operations, 
there must remain the greatest simplicity and harmony of 
governing laws, whether natural or spiritual, temporal or 
eternal. 

The laws of nature are so many fixed facts, so many eter- 
nal truths; and in these facts we are brought face to face 
with the laws which govern the physical universe — laws uni- 
versal in their application and infallible in their results. To 
those who have been initiated into the open secrets of her 
fixed laws of operations, nature is legible in all her diversi- 
fied phenomena. For the reign of law in nature is nowhere 
superseded by that of mystery. And the function of na- 
ture's facts is not to prove, but to interpret revealed truth, 



THE LAWS OF NATURE. 285 

nature itself being the symbols of all the beauty and harmo- 
ny connected with the revealed Word of God. 

Nature is capable of improvement by culture. Through 
the agency of man the animal and vegetable kingdoms have 
both been carried far beyond their original or natural state al- 
ready. Man is lord of the lower creation, caring for and 
culturing those species of animals and plants which are prof- 
itable to him, and neglecting or destroying those which are 
worthless or hurtful to the race. 

The laws of nature are coeval with the constitution of all 
material things, and govern their several movements. But 
back of all this is found the Creator of matter and the Au- 
thor and Controller of all its laws. Their power is hinged 
upon his will and word. He can and does suspend them at 
his own good pleasure. It is nonsense to talk, as some do, 
about the penalties of natural laws. They have none. They 
have their consequences, but no penalties. The} r relate to 
matter rather than to mind. They govern the seen rather 
than the unseen, the temporal rather than the eternal. 

God governs nature by natural laws, but he would con- 
trol his intelligent creatures by revealed law. These re- 
vealed laws are either moral or spiritual, or both combined. 
There is as striking a resemblance between moral and spir- 
itual laws as between their respective characters, but they 
are not one and the same thing. Spiritual law embodies all 
there is in the moral law, and much more. Moral law gov- 
erns the outer conduct, while spiritual law affects the inner 
life of men. One may observe the former without any ref- 
erence to the latter, but the observance of the latter always 
implies the keeping of the former. 



286 MORAL LAW A MIRROR. 

Moral law is the will of God in commandments. The Di- 
vine will is the supreme law in all the relations of life. As 
God's subjects we necessarily sustain very intimate relations 
to him and to each other, out of which naturally and neces- 
sarily arise rules of human action governing our conduct 
toward him and our fellows, and these rules of action con- 
trolling our lives, constitute the moral law under which all 
men have lived. Our relations to each other and to our 
Maker may change; but this moral law, like the laws 
of the Medes and Persians, is immutable. It changes 
not, and changes never. The moral code to which Christ's 
life of perfect obedience had special reference always re- 
quired supreme love to God and universal love for mankind. 
This moral code becomes to us a perfect law of liberty; not 
because of any change in it, but by virtue of a radical change 
in us. This change gives a new impulse, a holy inspiration, 
a spiritual life, which enables us, in spirit, to keep the law. 

The moral law is an exact expression of the Divine will, 
and just as immutable as that will itself. Hence it cannot 
be repealed or set aside in the interests of any one, but is 
perpetual in its obligations upon all men everywhere. It is 
a moral transcript of the Divine nature, rising out of the 
natural relations existing between the Creator and his ac- 
countable creatures. And, having its origin in the very na- 
ture and fitness of these relations, it can neither be arbitrary 
nor mutable. It is a fixed law of the Maker, given to gov- 
ern the actions of his moral subjects through time and eter- 
nity. 

The moral law is a mirror which reveals to the soul its 
guilt and condemnation, but it imparts no strength, it fur- 



GOSPEL VERSUS LAW. 287 

nishes no assistance to enable the sinner to meet its require- 
ments or satisfy its claims. Its light simply condemns the 
sinner and leaves him exposed to its curse and dominion. 
The knowledge of sin is the law — that is, the law makes one 
cognizant of sin. The gospel did not attempt to supplant 
this great moral code, but built its mighty fortress of truth 
upon the two great commandments embodying the very sum 
and substance of the moral law. This law is not made void, 
or abrogated even by the exercise of faith in the Savior of 
the gospel, but, if possible, it is only the more firmly estab- 
lished. The prime object of the gospel is to enable men so 
to walk in the Spirit that they may keep or fulfill this holy 
and righteous law of God. 

The gospel, instead of modifying the moral law into a 
milder form, makes it more condemnatory. God did not 
propose in the gospel to compromise with sin, but the great- 
er the grace resisted, the more heinous are our sins in his 
sight. An imperfect law, or a perfect law demanding only 
an imperfect obedience, from a perfect God, is a most ridic- 
ulous absurdity. Rather than lower his law to the capabil- 
ities of his fallen creatures, he would raise their capabilities 
to the full measure of the law's requirements. The gospel, 
as a remedial agent, removes enmity, the essence of sin, 
from the heart, and implants love, its own essence, in the 
soul, thus enabling its subjects the better to keep its com- 
mandments. It also furnished a Sacrifice sufficiently mer- 
itorious to atone for all the deficiencies of the saints along 
this line. 

The law in commandment is objective. The law in con- 
science is subjective. The man violates the objective law, 



288 LAW AND PENALTY. 

and there is a feeling* of fear. He violates the subjective 
law, and there is a sense of remorse. In the first instance 
he sins against the Lawmaker only, but in the second he 
also sins against himself. Conscience and concreated law 
are inseparably linked together. Law in conscience gives 
an inner sense of obligation. It is an internal solar light. 
It is law written in the heart, and hence it is the heart of 
Christian ethics — yes, of Christianity itself. 

Law is the basis of all good government. Penalty is the 
life of all good law. Without penalty it is a dead letter. 
Destroy penalty, and you at the same stroke kill the law, 
for it at once becomes powerless to protect the good or pun- 
ish the evil. Penalty is a necessity, because demanded by 
the general good of the law's subjects. Good laws always 
demand satisfaction commensurate with the guilt of the 
criminal. Even God cannot pardon a sinner from mere 
prerogative. In fact, he has no prerogative which conflicts 
with the righteous claims of his just and holy laws. Much 
less, then, could the law pardon a single soul that violates 
its statutes; for if so, salvation would be by the law rather 
than by grace. The very nature of this law secures the in- 
fliction of its penalty, whenever a subject proves to be a 
persistent violator of the same. But the execution of its 
penalty is not always immediate. It is often postponed in- 
definitely, and sometimes set aside entirely by counterac- 
tion. 

This moral law is universal. It was designed to govern 
men and angels as well as every other intelligent creature 
in God's boundless universe. The first Adam was placed 
under this law. The commandments given him were not its 



A CRITICAL JUNCTURE. 289 

sum total, it is true, but they involved the underlying prin- 
ciples of the great moral code. This was a manifestation of 
the moral law well adapted to test the fidelity of the crea- 
ture to the Creator. Man transgressed, and fell under its 
fearful penalty of spiritual death. The law could not be 
abrogated, neither could man be released from its claims. 
Man could not recall his sin, neither could he balance the 
account by future obedience. 

At this critical juncture Christ steps in with his remedy 
for sin, meets all the requirements of the violated law in his 
life of perfect obedience, and establishes its Divine author- 
ity forever. To satisfy the equitable claims of the law 
against our fallen race, Christ had to pay a debt he did not 
owe. As a man he owed the law perfect obedience, nothing 
more and nothing less. His spiritual death upon the cross 
was the satisfaction which lifted the penalty of the Adamic 
transgression and brought the entire race out under the cov- 
enant of redeeming grace. 

But Christ's perfect obedience to the moral law released 
no one from its universal claims on humanity. It is alike 
obligatory upon Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, both un- 
der the old and new dispensations. It was not abrogated, 
but established, ratified, and confirmed by the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. The Savior came not to destroy this grand moral 
code, but to fulfill all its requirements and satisfy all its 
claims upon humanity. There is perfect harmony between 
the Mosaic and the Messianic oracles, or between the law 
and the gospel. Neither of these grand codes contain ele- 
ments in opposition to the other; they are simply the coun- 
terparts of one grand, symmetrical remedial system. Di- 
19 



290 IXTERLAP AND OVERLAP. 

vine law is a unit, whether moral or spiritual, natural or re- 
vealed. 

It is difficult sometimes to distinguish between the moral 
and spiritual in law, yet there is evidently a difference. 
The moral law has more direct reference to the outer con- 
duct, while the spiritual refers more especially to the inner 
life. They interlap and overlap each other at so many 
points in the life of the true moralist and spiritualist as to 
render them apparently inseparable and the same. And yet 
many moralists are entire strangers to spirit law and spirit 
life, while some real Christians have so far divorced them- 
selves from their obligations to the moral commandments of 
the Word as to forget that the law has any further claims 
upon them. Such Christians follow Christ at too great a 
distance ever to develop grand symmetrical Christian char- 
acters. The greater the distance between them and their 
Savior along this line, the less the influence of Divine light 
and love upon their lives, and the sorer the temptations of 
the flesh, the world, and the devil. 

There is a spiritual realm, governed by spiritual law. No 
progress along the line of natural or moral development can 
ever project one into this spiritual sphere. To enter this 
spiritual kingdom one must be born of the Spirit. The 
highest type of morality cannot generate spiritual life. The 
only gateway leading into this spiritual realm is the new 
birth, and the only key in the universe that will unlock and 
turn it upon its golden hinges is repentance toward God 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The very essence of this spiritual law is love. Its actua- 
ting principles are supreme love to God and universal love 



THE SPIRITUAL LAW. 291 

for fallen man. The law of love, as laid down in the gospel, 
is the highest and grandest of all laws. Many specific laws 
grow out of or radiate from it, while many general laws are 
implied by, or embodied in, this great spiritual law of love. 
The law of love should guard and guide us in all our words, 
works, and ways through life. It should be in full force in 
all our domestic, social, civic, and business relations, as well 
as in our spiritual work. Its very essence must be filtered 
into our inmost being before we can render a life of accept- 
able obedience to this law of liberty. 

This spiritual law lays its obligations upon the very 
thoughts, intents, and purposes of the sinning soul, that it 
may send conviction to the same, and thus lead it to the re- 
ception of Christ. And no individual nor nation can afford 
to ignore these wholesome laws of Divine love. Personal 
and public interests alike hang upon their faithful observ- 
ance. God may wink at our imperfections and shortcomings, 
but the law of love cannot sanction a single sin of the soul. 
Xo man can be happy in disobedience to this law of spirit- 
ual life, if, indeed, he can be spiritually alive at all, in the 
absence of that love which prompts us to filial obedience to 
God. The principles of these spiritual laws are eternal; 
and though men may defy them, they will remain unchanged 
when their enemies are overtaken by the storms of time, or 
ingulfed in the vortex of an endless doom. 

It is not less a spiritual than a natural law, that, refusing 
to see, they waive the right of sight. The disuse of func- 
tions in either case is inevitably followed by the loss of pow- 
ers or the decay of faculties. God has given a positive 
and a negative law by which sinners are to be judged and 



292 THE LAW OF LOVE. 

condemned. One is the sowing and the other is the neglect- 
ing to sow process. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap 
corruption for our sins of commission. If we neglect to 
sow to the Spirit, there is no escaping the consequences of 
our sins of omission. But we need not refer all the conse- 
quences of our sins to the distant future. The sins of to- 
day will find part of their consequences in the sins of to- 
morrow. Their effects are always felt in this life. 

This Divine law of love has been implanted in the very 
constitution of humanity,, and written upon the hearts of all 
men, so that those who have not received the revealed will 
and Word of God might be a law unto themselves. The cir- 
cle of this righteous law also bounds on every side the per- 
sonal liberty of its many subjects; and all beyond these 
boundaries is license, not liberty. Love to God and love to 
man are the two fundamental commandments of the law of 
spiritual life, and upon these two hang all the Mosaic law 
and the prophets; and upon these two, so far as law is to 
affect our lives, must be based all our hopes of successfully 
marching over the Royal Road leading through grace to 
glory and to God. 

There are several different kinds of laws spoken of in the 
Bible. The Old Testament presents us with the Adamic 
law, which relates especially to the Divine requirements of 
Adam in his original state of purity and holiness. It also 
gives us the Mosaic law, which includes the great decalogue 
of commandments and all the moral obligations rising out of 
or embodied in these commandments. It speaks of the Rit- 
ualistic law, referring to the rules and regulations governing 
the rites and ceremonies of the visible Church under the old 



THE LAW OF LAWS. 293 

Jewish dispensation. It talks of the Ceremonial law, a law 
almost, if not altogether, identical with the Ritualistic law. 
It introduces ns to the Levitical law, pointing out the pecul- 
iar features and functions of the Levites as the Divinely ap- 
pointed ministers in the tabernacle services of the most High 
God. It also calls our attention to the Political law that 
governed the Children of Israel, as a nation, under their 
judges and rulers after the death of Moses and Joshua. 

The New Testament speaks of the carnal law in opposi- 
tion to the law of the Spirit. It also talks about the law of 
works, in contradistinction to the law of faith, looking away 
from self to the all-prevailing merits of a Sacrificial Savior. 
But its cardinal law is the law of love. This is the bed rock 
upon which it builds the citadel of all our earthly hopes to a 
heavenly inheritance, when the fleeting years of time shall 
have glided away into the long ages of an endless eternity. 

Continuity is the law of laws in the legal realm. It is an 
all-embracing unity, extending throughout the universe of 
matter, mind, and spirit. We cannot conceive of a region 
where this principle of continuity does not prevail. The law 
of life, for illustration, is universal. Wherever life is found 
it has its origin from preexisting life, and is governed by the 
same continuous law. There is one law for all life, whether 
vegetable, animal, natural, or spiritual; and this law operates 
wherever life in any form is found. That law is, that life is 
essential to the production of life. Science has settled the 
question by actual test, and ascertained the fact that life 
can spring only from the touch of life. The effort in the 
realm of nature to generate the living out of the dead has 
proved a signal failure. 



294 A STRANGE BORDER LAND. 

And yet the dogma of spontaneous spiritual generation is 
a current misconception of the doctrine of the new birth, 
even among men of culture. It is evidently a doctrine, 
though preached from thousands of modern pulpits, which is 
out of harmony with the fundamental doctrines of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ, and abortive to the salvation of sinful souls. 
Spiritual life is not of spontaneous self-generation; and no 
man ever grew gradually better and better until by his own 
efforts at right living he evolved even the germ of a spirit- 
ual life out of a soul dead in trespasses and in sins. Spirit- 
ual life is much more than a mere normal development of the 
natural or moral man into a physical giant or a moral hero. 
It is the gift of the Spirit of Life imparted to the dead soul in 
the act of regeneration — the new or spiritual birth. 

There is a strange border land in nature, between the liv- 
ing and the dead— the organic and the inorganic kingdoms — 
that can be crossed in but one way. There is no passage 
from the mineral to the vegetable kingdom but by or through 
the agency of vegetable life. So there is in the spiritual 
world a border land between the living and the dead which 
is ever guarded by the law of life, and can only be crossed 
in one way, and that is through the process of a vital life- 
giving regeneration. We might as well look for the grad- 
ual infusion of the life principle into dead, inert matter and 
its sure development until, in the process of time, it reaches 
the highest state of vitality, as ever to expect a soul dead in 
sin by its own evolutions from bad to good, from good to bet- 
ter, and from better to best, at last to attain to life eternal. 

The door between the living and the dead in the natural 
world is shut, bolted, and barred; and no dead matter can 



LOCKED AND SEALED. 295 

ever open it, for it is guarded by the law of life. And just 
so the door between the living and the dead in the spiritual 
world is closed, locked, and sealed; so that no dead soul 
can ever open it, for it too is guarded by the law of life, and 
no mental effort, moral energy, evolution of character, nor 
mere change of earthly environment can ever vitalize a 
single dead soul with the principle of spiritual life. Except 
a soul be born of the Spirit, it will remain lifeless forever, 
for life depends upon contact with the living for its exist- 
ence. It cannot be originated by the dead. There is no life 
either in nature or grace without its antecedent life. Reli- 
gion, like nature, is destitute of the power of spontaneous 
generation. Christ is the source of all spiritual life, and he 
only who hath the Son can have this spiritual and eternal 
life. 




CHAPTEE XVI. 

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. (Rom. i. 16.) 

HE Gospel reveals the glory of Christ in its cloud- 
less splendors. It gives to his entire life a high- 
er and holier sweep than that allotted to any 
mere mortal man. It presents his regal admin- 
istration as one of justice, and his kingly reign as one of 
righteousness. It places him upon the throne of his father 
David as Xing of kings, in the full sweep of royal authority, 
dispensing his magnificent gifts of grace alike to all men 
the world over. The consummation of his glorious reign 
will be universal. 

The Christ of the Gospel, in his incarnation, life, and death, 
filled to the letter the prophetic delineation of the world's 
Promised Messiah, and the miraculous power he possessed 
was simply the seal of heaven to the Messiah's mission of 
love and mercy to a lost and ruined race. 

John the Baptist w r as the forerunner of Christ. He came 
in the spirit and power of Elijah, as a messenger of heaven. 
His ways were in the wilderness and along the banks of the 
sacred Jordan. His voice bore solemn messages from the 
eternal world as he proclaimed the presence of the long- 
promised Messiah, and predicted the reestablishment upon a 
firmer foundation of his spiritual kingdom on the earth. 

John was the harbinger who heralded the coining of a hap- 

(296) 



° I— I 




A BEAUTIFUL MORNING STAR. • 299 

pier, holier day for sinning and sorrowing humanity, the 
dawning* of a brighter and better age for the human family. 

The gray dawn of the morning was visible in the east. A 
beam of celestial light, bursting upon the horizon of time, 
soon culminated in a beautiful Morning Star which hung in 
hope over the Messianic manger of Bethlehem. A strange 
feeling thrilled the world and electrified the universe. 
Earth, hell, and heaven were all in a state of extreme excite- 
ment and uncommon commotion. An event in whose issues 
were involved the greatest interests of time was about to 
transpire. It was of such vital importance to man that the 
very destiny of the race depended upon the results of the 
pending crisis. Angelic legions crowded the firmament 
from zenith to horizon, as interested witnesses of the great- 
est event on record. Demons of darkness forsook the deep- 
est dungeons of hell, to prevent, if possible, the rising of the 
Sun of Righteousness upon this dark and benighted world; 
while poor fallen man waited, vacillating between hope and 
despair for the coming day of his long-looked-for deliver- 
ance. 

For a season no seers or sages had predicted the humble 
advent and regal reign of the Righteous One. Nor had any 
one recently announced the vengeance of Divine wrath upon 
the workers of iniquity. And yet his incarnation was the 
culmination of ancient prophecy, and the foundation of mod- 
ern faith. The world needed no longer to look for a Prom- 
ised Redeemer, but simply to accept the Manifested Messiah. 

In the holy hush of night, heaven stooping low, whispered 
the good news to the listening earth, Glory to God in the 
highest. And after the angel band had spread their silvery 



300 DIVINITY CONJOINED TO HUMANITY. 

wings and floated far up the steeps of heaven, from the 
radiant skies fell back the sweet refrain, And on earth peace 
and good will toward men. 

This incarnation was the veiling rather than the revealing 
of the Divine power and glory. It was the sun behind 
the clouds with its splendors breaking through the gloom at 
intervals to indicate the presence of the Divine glory in its 
associations with human weakness. And yet it was the 
dawning of a new era upon the world — an era of light and 
life and love — which superseded a long reign of darkness 
and death. It w T as the ushering in of the Gospel era with 
its reign of righteousness, tendering light and life to all the 
world. 

In the person of Jesus we have the mysterious union of 
the Infinite with the finite; the human with the Divine. He 
was verily God manifested in the flesh — Divinity conjoined 
to humanity. But in his manifestation there was no fourth 
person added to the Holy Trinity. It was simply the mani- 
festation in human form of a Divine Being, eternal in his 
existence. In him Infinity simply coupled itself onto the 
finite. He took upon himself our nature; and in his human- 
ity became what Adam was before the fall — the Representa- 
tive of his race, bearing a similar relation to humanity and 
Divinity, to sin and righteousness. In the life work of this Du- 
al Savior the human and the Divine were together in thought 
and word and act. In his life there is a revelation of duty, 
and in his death a manifestation of love and mercy for all 
mankind. 

The life of Christ was unique. It moved along on the 
same matchless and majestic plane from his mysterious ad- 




THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. (Holman Hunt.) 



"I am the light of the world." (John 
viii. 12.) 



THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 303 

vent to his marvelous ascension. Approach it when you will, 
or touch it when you may, from his birth in Bethlehem to 
his crucifixion upon the cross, and you will find it perfectly 
consistent in all its words, works, and ways. There are 
spots upon the sun, but the Son of God was without spot or 
blemish. There was no guile in his mouth, no guilt in his 
heart, and no sin in his soul. His motto was supreme love 
for God, and unfeigned love for his fellows. His precepts 
and practices were alike pure and sublime. He was entire- 
ly free from all the prejudices of his age. Hence his doc- 
trines were both beautiful and true. He was sincere, hon- 
est, upright, and just in all he said or did. His manners 
were sweet and his maxims profound. His mind was as 
clear as the crystal fountains, and his morals as pure as their 
silver streams. Pure in heart, stainless in character, and 
sinless in life, he was preeminently 

The Light of the World. 

Christ is the center of revealed truth. He is the Sun of 
Righteousness, banishing darkness with his beams of celes- 
tial light. He is the Ideal Character of the ages, the One 
Model Man, which we are to imitate as we mix and mingle 
with our fellows along the line of life. He is the Central 
Figure in human history, the one Historic Personage of 
time. He is the mystery of mysteries, the miracle of all 
ages, God manifest in the flesh. 

Christ was preeminently in his life and character the 
brightest and best exemplar the world ever had. There have 
been many good men — men of God, men after God's own 
heart, who lived and walked with God, and are not because 



304 THEORY WITHOUT PRACTICE. 

God took them to himself — but there have been none like 
Christ, the God-man. ^o other man ever lived a life so pure 
or exhibited a character so commanding in its influence as 
was that of the Immaculate Son of God. The counterpart of 
this matchless life lies beyond the reach of an incarnate an- 
gel. There is no other man whose records do not reveal 
some spot or blemish upon the escutcheon of his moral char- 
acter, to dim the radiance of life and pale the splendors of 
his otherwise faultless example. Christ was the sublime per- 
sonification of personal purity, the living incarnation of sa- 
cred truth, and the vital embodiment of Divine love. 

His teachings are well adapted to the minds of the great 
masses of mankind. Humanity learns the lessons of life 
much more readily by example than by precept. Theory 
without practice, or practice without example, will never lead 
men successfully from the lower to the higher planes of life. 
Xo system of instruction is perfect which stops short of 
both precept and example. 

Christ and his teachings are inseparably connected. To 
accept one is to receive both. Hence the power of his pre- 
cepts over the lives of those who embrace him as their Per- 
sonal Savior. The Great Teacher and his lessons of love 
sustain to each other a relation similar to that existing be- 
tween the fountain and its limpid stream, or the sun and its 
golden light. One is the Origin and the other the oiFspring 
— one the Originator and the other the outgrowth — one is the 
Source and the other the medium of all earthly blessings. 
These lessons of love, with their Christlike precepts and 
principles, bring light and life to a wicked world. 

Those who receive these sacred truths into good and hon- 



*3 



n 



o * £ 



3 J 

~. O 

bS 



20 




SECRET OF CHRIST'S SUCCESS. 307 

est hearts naturally reveal the spirit of Christ in their lives. 
Jesus is the perfect model held constantly before the eyes 
of those who accept his teachings. The result is a spiritual 
transformation which takes on more and more of the likeness 
of Christ. These lessons of love carry with them the light 
of endless joy for the heart, and the blessedness of eternal 
life for the soul saved by Divine grace. Only let these gra- 
cious truths find lodgment in the heart of erring, sinful hu- 
manity, and in sentiment and song they will mix and mingle 
with the finer feelings and sweeter emotions of the penitent 
soul, until its longings for life are lost in the joys of an end- 
less salvation. 

The secret of Christ's success is found in the fact that he 
kept himself in constant contact Avith humanity in all its 
wants and woes. Xo law, traditional or ceremonial, could 
close his sympathetic heart against the appeals of the outcast 
leper or the penitence of the lost sinner. He came to seek 
and to save all classes and conditions of humanity, whether 
within or without either the highest or humblest circles of 
society. He tendered the clasp of a brother's hand and the 
warmth of a brother's heart to all men. He came both to 
seek and to save even the chief of sinners. The world need- 
ed just such a Savior as it found in this Friend of Publicans, 
one who would reach down to the lowest stratum of society 
and lift lost men and women up to glory and to God. 

As sure as the sunshine scatters darkness, vitalizes the 
perishing seed, and matures the luscious fruit or fragrant 
flower, so sure will the sunlight of a Savior's love received 
in the human heart dispel the gloom, quicken the dead soul, 
and develop all its spiritual faculties until it hangs loaded 



308 THE SAVIOR AND THE SAVED. 

with golden fruitage. Only let the heavenly light come in, 
and more life and better life is sure to follow. But sweep 
the world clear of everything that bears the name or nature 
of Christ, and spiritual darkness and death will reign su- 
preme over all the earth. 

The saving truths of the Gospel, when appropriated by 
faith, necessarily bring into happy, harmonious activity all 
the spiritual faculties of the saved soul. Man has only to 
choose life eternal, and nourish his soul daily by abiding as 
a vital branch in the Living Vine, and Christ will be found 
in him constantly, the hope of eternal glory. 

Salvation implies a relation between the Savior and the 
saved, at once vital, personal, and spiritual. Christ is the 
goal of spiritual evolution. He makes the Christian, and 
not the Christian himself, and through his Spirit w r e are al- 
ways evolved in the direction of his own sinless perfection. 
And wherever this Gospel has been preached in its purity 
and poAver the people have always advanced in intellectual 
and moral standing as well as in spiritual life. The radia- 
tions or far-reaching influences of this Gospel have gone be- 
yond the direct agencies of the great Remedial System as a 
soul-saving power. Even the leaders of modern thought, 
though antagonistic to the spirit of Christianity, have oft 
felt the effects of these secret influences upon their own 
minds and hearts. The Gospel seems to have one purpose 
paramount to all others in imparting its lessons of life and 
love as embodied in the story of the cross, and that is to fill 
the whole earth with the Spirit of Christ. This is the bur- 
den of all its teachings and the goal to which it directs all 
its faithful followers everywhere. This Gospel, with its 



SPIRIT AND GENIUS OF THE GOSPEL. 309 

spiritual law of love, is but tbe Divine portraiture of its Con- 
secrated Author, with his life of loving- devotion to the wel- 
fare of the wide, wide world. And the world wants to sit 
at the feet of Christ, and drink in more and more his won- 
derful words of wisdom and grace. 

The spirit and genius of the Gospel are in perfect harmo- 
ny with the world's highest interests. It contemplates the 
amelioration of the condition and the elevation of the status 
of all who accept its sacred truths and practice its pre- 
cious precepts. It extends its invitations of love and mercy 
to all mankind. Its promises of present and future bless- 
ings are made alike in good faith to every man upon the 
same conditions of repentance, faith, and continued obe- 
dience and love. The rich and bountiful provisions of the 
Gospel make salvation possible to every man, but they do 
not absolutely or unconditionally necessitate the salvation 
of a single soul. The call is universal, and sufficient light 
to respond is given to every man, through Christ, the Light 
of the world This is the Light which lighteth every man's 
head and heart that cometh into the world. But, while 
many are called, few accept the Light and are chosen, be- 
cause most men prefer darkness and death eternal to light 
and life everlasting. 

The Gospel presents inducements best calculated to attract 
our attention and engage our thoughts. It appeals to our 
hopes and fears, affections and aversions, judgment, reason, 
and conscience. It sets forth the fullness of the Father's 
affection and the tenderness of a Savior's love. In fact, its 
lessons are all lessons of love, and its bloody cross the very 
embodiment of Divine love. It presents the merits of 



310 EARTHLY INTERESTS AND ETERNAL DESTINY. 

Christ's obedience as commensurate with the fearful conse- 
quences of Adam's disobedience, and his grace as fully 
equal to the exigencies of every emergency. In short, it 
presents Christ as the only remedy for sin, the compeer of 
angels, the wonder of the universe, and the crowning gift 
of creation's beneficent God. 

And yet it recognizes the fact that man's eternal destiny 
hangs pivoted on his own volition. It says he may be 
saved if he will, but will be lost if he wills not to be saved. 
Life and death are placed before him, and he must choose 
the one and live, or the other and die. There is no other 
alternative. Choose he will, because choose he must. The 
will is the seat of volition. It is not an entity, but simply 
the mind in action. The Divine will itself is a nonentity. 
It is simply the activity of the Divine mind in its endless 
circle of volitions. 

The Gospel makes man's free agency relate alike to his 
earthly interests and his eternal destiny. It makes freedom 
of choice necessary to any moral distinction between virtue 
and vice. It is in perfect accord with our consciousness of 
freedom in choice between good and evil, and hence joins us 
in condemning ourselves when we do the wrong, and in self- 
approval when we lay hold of the right. The Gospel could 
not censure wrongdoers as it does did it not know them to 
be free both in will and word, in volition and action. But 
all civil as well as sacred laws assume that men are or- 
dinarily free to choose between the right and the wrong; 
and a verdict of guilty is always anticipated Irv justice where 
crime is willfully, meanly, or maliciously perpetrated. 

The rewards and penalties of the statutory laws of all 



THE RIGHT OF CHOICE. 31] 

lands are evidently designed to encourage virtue and pre- 
vent vice, and are necessarily based on the freedom in choice 
on the part of the populace everywhere recognized by the 
lawmaking power. 

This freedom of will necessarily implies the right of 
choice between the good and the evil, and grace to enable 
us to do the right. The will is always at liberty to take its 
own course. There are many motives, it is true, to influ- 
ence, but no cause to coerce, the will in its liberty of choice. 
Necessity in choice would not only destroy man's free agen- 
cy, but also his accountability, and render punishment for 
disobedience abhorrent to every sense of justice. The priv- 
ilege to accept or reject the Gospel is the only ground upon 
which the future punishment it threatens could reasonably 
rest. It is, choose life and live, or death and die. Divine 
sovereignty itself does not contradict nor interfere in the least 
with man's free agency. Man cannot be the less free be- 
cause God is a Divine Sovereign. This free agency consists 
in the self-directing power of the mind or spirit in man, in 
the free activity of the unfettered will of man in its liberty- 
loving scope of endless volition. 

But the Christ of this Gospel came not as a great Despotic 
Sovereign, but as a mighty Moral Reformer and Spiritual 
Redeemer. He came as a Savior, infinite in greatness and 
in grace. Even the prerogatives of the Messiahship were 
not arbitrarily assumed by the meek and merciful Savior. 
He rested his claims upon Divine testimony. The working 
of miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, and 
pardoning sin, all attested his heaven-born mission prior to 
any public declaration upon his part to the effect that he 



312 THE ADVENT. 

was the world's long looked-for Messiah. The miraculous 
manifestations connected with his incarnation were suffi- 
cient revelations of his Divinity to clothe his person and 
history with a halo of glory that has through all succeeding 
ages aided in drawing men and women in admiration to the 
cross of Calvary. 

True, these evidences of the Divine in Christ were often 
shaded by the humbler walks and Avorks of his earthly mis- 
sion. His sufferings of body, sorrows of heart, and agonies 
of soul all conspired to exhibit his humanity to the over- 
shadowing of his Divine majesty and eternal glory. But we 
too often forget that, while he stooped to the lowest bent 
of humiliation in the flesh, he was raised to the highest 
pitch of exaltation in the Spirit. For, on the other hand, the 
matchless purity of his life, the sacrificial character of his 
death, his triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension 
manifested his Divinity to the concealment largely of his 
humanity. And thus the humble and exalted Christ bridged 
over the fearful gulf between the finite and the Infinite, be- 
tween Offended God and offending man. 

The advent, then, of heaven's long-promised Messiah is a 
verity no longer to be called in question, even by the most 
illiterate of earth who face an open Bible; for the birth of 
Jesus, though regarded by some as a mere fiction not less 
fanciful than the most extravagant dreams of Oriental ro- 
mance, is nevertheless a fact fully as well authenicated by 
the wonderful changes it has wrought in the world's history 
as any event that graces the records of time. His appear- 
ance was a visit of the Day-Star from on high, the turning 
point in the world's history. His advent was the rising of 



THE WONDROUS SONG. 313 

the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his beams, upon 
all the nations of the earth. The Incarnate Word was the 
Wonderful One, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. 
Hence, at his birth, from the courts of heaven to the plains 
of earth, resounded the glad song of the heavenly hosts, 
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good 
will toward men. 

It was heard at the midnight hour, 

That wondrous song of old, 
Sung by the angel choir, 

Armed with harps of gold. 
Glory in the highest, glory 

To our earth-born King; 
Peace and good will be our story, 

So the fair angels sing. 

Down the radiant skies they pour, 

At least a million strong, 
To praise him thej 7 adore, 

And sing their matchless song. 
Above earth's sad and lonely plains 

They furl their snowy wings, 
And in their sweetest, grandest strains 

The blessed angels sing. 

Yet sin and death have battled long 

Against this peaceful reign. 
Two thousand years of wrong 

Have echoed to the holy strains. 
Still warring men refuse to hear, 

In honor of our King, 
Token of our Jubilee Year, 

The song that angels sing. 



314 A GOSPEL OF GOOD WORKS. 

But soon will the glad years roll round 

Which ancient bards foretold, 
With pristine glory crowned, 

Bring back the envied age of gold. 
Then Peace o'er all the world shall throw. 

Her mantle white and long, 
And all the ransomed hosts below, 

Join in the glory song. 

Glory to God in highest strains; 

Glory, the blue vaults ring; 
Peace on earth, good will t' men; 

All hail! the King of kings! 
Heaven and earth, the strains prolong; 

Millions of ransomed ones, 
Join the chorus in endless song, 

Glory to God the Son. 

But the Gospel of Christ is a Gospel of good works. Good 
works are not the cause but the effect of salvation. They 
are the legitimate fruits of the Spirit rather than of the flesh. 
They are simply so many signs of spiritual life in the soul. 
They are among the best evidences of vital godliness in the 
Christian life, just as respiration is a satisfactory evidence 
of remaining life in the natural man. We have the most 
marvelous manifestations of good works in the life-examples 
of the Blessed Savior himself ever left upon record for our 
imitation. But nowhere is it intimated that these good 
works made him a better man. ]^o, they were simply evi- 
dences of his innate goodness; overflowings of a fountain full 
of love for his fellow-men, and a heart thoroughly consecrated 
to the service of his heavenly Father. So we are not to be 
saved because of our good works, but our good works are 



A GOSPEL OF FAITH. 315 

to be evidence to the world of our saved relation with Christ. 
Xot even by works of righteousness which we have done, 
but according to the rich provisions of Divine grace, we are 
saved by the regenerating and renewing work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

By grace are ye saved, which salvation is the free and 
unmerited gift of God. But we are to be rewarded for all 
our good works, even to the ministering of a cup of cold 
water in his name. 

The Gospel of Christ is a Gospel of Kepentance, not of 
penance. Evangelical repentance is a sorrow for sin, not 
merely because of its fearful consequences, but more espe- 
cially in view of its nature and heinousness in the sight 
of God. It is a godly sorrow that leads one to turn away 
from his sins and accept Christ as his own personal Savior. 
It is much more than a mere resolution to reform one's 
life. It is a cup of wormwood and gall which none but the 
broken heart and contrite spirit will press to the lips and 
drain to the dregs. 

This Gospel of Christ is also most emphatically a Gospel 
of Faith. There is scarcely a paragraph in the Xew Testa- 
ment in which faith in Christ is not either expressed or im- 
plied. The Divine blessings in the hands of the Incarnate 
Son while in the flesh hung contingent upon the exercise of 
accredited faith. According to the faith of his followers he 
conferred upon them the desired favors. He had no special 
blessing for unbelieving hearts. Salvation is conditioned 
upon faith, not because of any intrinsic value or merit to be 
found in it, but because it brings the sinner into fellowship 
with the Son, whose Divine presence ever tends to chase 



316 EVANGELICAL FAITH. 

away the shadows as well as the substance of sin from 
the soul. 

Faith has no abstract existence, and hence could not be a 
direct gift from God. Like thought, it is inseparable from 
the agent who exercises it, and hence is of necessity the act 
of the creature. But the ability and disposition to exercise 
saving faith in Christ are evidently the gifts of God. 

There are different degrees of faith. Some have but little, 
others medium, and still others great faith. Some are weak, 
while others are strong in the faith. These have mustard 
seed, while those have mountainlike faith. Faith takes a 
more or less extensive range relative to the number of ob- 
jects embraced. We also embrace these objects with differ- 
ent degrees of confidence and assurance. 

Evangelical faith is not a mere intellectual opinion. It is 
not head knowledge, but heart acknowledgment, leading to 
a vital union between the spirits of the human and the Di- 
vine. This faith makes spiritual objects present entities to 
the saved soul. It is the strongest persuasion of the reality 
of things hoped for, the clearest possible demonstration of 
things invisible and eternal. 

The faith of the Gospel, then, implies much more than a 
cold, calculating assent of a speculative mind to its sacred 
truths. It reaches beyond man's intellectual and moral fac- 
ulties, and takes hold upon his spiritual powers and conse- 
crates them all to the service of his God. A man's head 
may be perfectly level while his heart, like that of Simon 
Magus, is far from being right in the sight of God. The 
wicked, like the demons of hell, may believe with the head 
every essential truth of the Gospel, while with the heart they 



A GOSPEL OF LOVE. 317 

hate God and all that is just and good. This saving* faith, 
then, is no mere intellectual process. It is the most implicit 
heart trust, the spiritual telescope which reveals the richest 
and most ravishing secrets of this mysterious Gospel of 
Christ. 

The Gospel of Christ is also a Gospel of Love. We have 
a marvelous mingling of love and mercy in the obedient life 
and sacrificial death of the Savior; and the sympathetic heart 
of the Affectionate Nazarene still throbs in love throes for 
a wicked world. Love for Christ is the great motive pow T er 
of the Gospel. Supreme love for him is a positive good in 
the human soul. For when our affinity for him is once fas- 
tened with the iron bands of faith we shall revolve forever in 
the orbit of Divine love. Christ being both human and Di- 
vine we cannot love him supremely without fulfilling the 
whole law of the N~ew Covenant, in loving with all our ran- 
somed powers the true God and the true man, who is in the 
Divine image and after the Divine likeness. Christ is the 
depository of Divine power for his followers. lie is the 
center of our common Christianity. All its love circles 
round, and all its life centers in him. He is its Alpha and 
Omega, its beginning and its end, its all in all. lie is the 
great Sun of the Gospel System. Around him incidentally 
hangs a halo of glory which dazzles the eyes and inspires the 
hearts of the Christian world. His light imparts love and obe- 
dience to the human soul, and produces good works in the 
human life. So if we love them for whom we labor less, we 
will labor to make them like him whom we love most. 

The Gospel of Christ is most emphatically a Gospel of 
Life. Existence is not life, and does not necessarily imply 



318 LIFE AND LOVE PRINCIPLES. 

a living state; for dead things exist just as surely as the 
living. Christ brought life and immortality to light through 
the Gospel. And he that hath the Son hath eternal life. 
For to know God the Father is life eternal. But we can 
only know him as he is revealed to us by the Son, through 
the Spirit. For it takes the Infinite to reveal the Infinite to 
the finite. If we want to know anything about God, we 
must go to a Divine Being for that knowledge. For all in- 
formation concerning Deity lies within its own environ- 
ments, and must come either directly or indirectly from a 
Divine Being. 

Spiritual life is as real to those who possess it as natural 
life. It is something definite and resident in the soul of 
every true believer. It is these life and love principles 
above everything else that distinguish Christianity from 
all other religions, and constitute God's children a peculiar 
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The Spirit of 
Christ dwells in them consciously, and is to them the foun- 
tain of continued life. 

This life of the fully saved soul is eternal, because its spir- 
itual environment is eternal. The one cannot cease while 
the other continues to exist. 

Science says that eternal life is uninterrupted correspond- 
ence with a perfect environment. Eternal life demands an 
eternal environment in harmony with its continued existence, 
and with such environment life is necessarily a most fruitful 
plant, a germ destined to reach the most perfect development. 
God is just such an environment to the life principle which 
he plants in the believer's soul at regeneration, and which in 
turn is hid with Christ in God. Hence life eternal is to know 



A PERFECT ENVIRONMENT. 319 

God, whom to know aright is to be in correspondence with 
him as a perfect environment. In Scripture language this 
simply means constant communion with God. So the soul 
that enters into this communion or correspondence must in 
the very nature of things live forever. Life of any kind is 
simply a correspondence with its surrounding environment, 
and can cease only with its cessation. But Jesus is the 
great Spiritual Sun of his own Life-giving Gospel, ever shin- 
ing brighter and brighter as the centuries roll away. And 
the farther we advance in the divine life the more resplend- 
ent shines the Gospel Sun to us; and the higher we ascend 
the spiritual mount the more intense his beams of light and 
life, and the more radiant and glorious the manifestations of 
his unspeakable wisdom and matchless love. He came into 
this world that his followers might have life, and that they 
might have it more abundantly and eternally. 

The Gospel of Christ has not fully accomplished its mis- 
sion with a man until its truths have become so completely 
inwrought in the soul as to perfectly transform the life 
character of the individual. The doctrines of the Gospel 
are all means to an end, and that end is the development of 
the highest type of Christian character possible under the 
existing environment. This Gospel is the science of spirit- 
ual life. It points out the way to heaven so plainly that the 
wayfaring fool need not err therein. Its precious truths 
tend to repress the baser and develop the nobler traits of 
human character, and thus to elevate and refine human na- 
ture and ally it to the Divine. 

The eternal truths of the Gospel carry with them the 
same restorative and preserving power to-day that they pos- 



320 



COURSE OF THE GOSPEL. 



sessed eighteen centuries ago. The same cause will always 
produce the same effect, notwithstanding the lapse of inter- 
vening ages. Running, like the sun, from east to west, the 
Gospel soon found its every creature under heaven. These 
early conquests of Christianity looked to its final triumph 
in this world and its ultimate and glorious consummation in 
the world to come. However, the course of the Gospel has 
been one of long and terrible conflict. The evil powers of 
earth, allied with the fiendish powers of hell, have marshaled 
their combined forces against it, and the battle has been hot 
and heavy, long and fearful. But a combination of the 
grand resultant forces of the Gospel will ultimately over- 
throw the powers of darkness, and unite the world in the 
bonds of sympathy, fellowship, and love. But not till the 
Golden Age shall dawn, the Golden Rule govern all lives, 
then the world will echo to the millennial reign of Christ for 
a thousand years; for his dominion is to be triumphant, uni- 
versal, and eternal. 



21 




OUR REDEEMER. (Hofmann.) 



"For I know that my Redeemer liveth. 
(Job xix. 25.) 




CHAPTEK XVII. 

THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 
Christ died for the ungodly. (Rom. v. 6.) 

EATH is simply the opposite of life. As it re- 
lates to man it is threefold: natural, spiritual, 
and eternal. Natural life is the result of a mys- 
terious union of soul and body, and natural 
death is the consequence of a separation of soul and body. 
Spiritual life is the offspring of a union and communion of 
a human with the Divine Spirit, and spiritual death is mere- 
ly the absence of this spiritual life. Eternal life consists in 
the union of natural and spiritual life eternally perpetuated, 
while eternal death is more than the mere absence of eter- 
nal life. It is natural life, apart from the spiritual, spending 
an eternity in the darkness of spiritual death. It is a re- 
united soul and body paying the eternal death penalty of 
the covenant of redeeming grace. It is endless despair in 
the regions of eternal night. It is the fearful state of the 
lost, wandering in the blackness of darkness, amid the bowl- 
ings of demons, the shrieks of the damned, and the angry 
surgings of the fiery billows of the bottomless pit through- 
out the ceaseless ages of a never-ending eternity. 

But life usually antedates death. Christ must needs live 
before he could die. His birth was essential to his being; 
his advent, to his exit; his life, to his death. So he came in 
the fullness of time, when the way for his coming had been 

fully prepared. The world was anxiously waiting his ap- 

(323) 



324 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

pearance. All experiments looking to the restoration of fall- 
en man had proven futile. Failure had been written upon 
every proposed remedy for sin. The oracles of the wise had 
melted away with the mists of the morning. The songs of 
sages had returned no echoes as tokens of the truthfulness 
of their predictions. And the prayers of priests had brought 
no relief to this wicked world. Idolatry increased the dark- 
ness, and hope was giving way to despair, when the Sun of 
Righteousness arose with healing in his wings, and the De- 
sire of all Nations made his advent on the earth. 

Jesus was born in the humble city of David, the home of 
the poor but regal line of the royal singer of Israel. He 
was reared in the humble town of Nazareth, out of which, it 
was thought by the aristocracy, no good thing could possi- 
bly come. But, thank God, he died upon Calvary, once 
shameful and ignominious, but now grand and glorious Cal- 
vary, heaven's own sacrificial altar, upon which she laid her 
great Love Offering for the sins of the whole world. 

The life of Christ was indeed a unique one. It was nec- 
essarily a combination of the natural, spiritual, and eternal, 
since it was a union of both the human and the Divine. It 
carried with it all the essentials belonging both to humanity 
and Divinity. Many of its manifestations were purely hu- 
man, while others were just as purely Divine. But from the 
beginning to the close of his public ministry manifestations, 
both human and Divine, were mysteriously mingled in the 
life and labors of this God-man. He was man to the senses, 
but God to the souls of sinners. The distinctions between 
the human and the Divine in his life were clearly seen and 
easily recognized. This life of love and labor, culminating, 




O 

in 

2 






<! a) 

ft 



HIS CHARACTER AN ORIGINAL ONE. 327 

as it did, in the apprehension, trial, and crucifixion of the 
World's Messiah, is the greatest tragedy of the ages. 

The character of Christ was an original one. It was un- 
like all others, it was human; and yet, above the human, 
it was Divine; but not all Divine. Like his life, it was a 
combination of the earthly and the heavenly. It shone re- 
splendent among the grandest characters the world had ever 
known. In comparison with all others, it was transcend- 
ency grand and glorious. It was preeminently the model 
character of the ages. 

Christ sought usefulness, rather than popularity. He 
valued holiness infinitely above happiness. He preferred 
purity of heart to moral pretensions. He placed a higher 
estimate upon character than he did upon reputation. He 
mingled with the poor, though courted by the rich. He was 
content with poverty, though tempted with all the kingdoms 
of this world. He trod the humbler walks of life, while the 
multitudes were anxious to exalt him to the royal throne of 
his father David. He chose his Father's will rather than 
his own. He surrendered to his enemies, with legions of 
angels ready for his rescue. And he finally passed through 
the trying ordeal of death, though himself the Prince of Life. 

Christ's death was preceded by a great deal of suffering, 
but he was an Innocent Sufferer, conscious of a guiltless soul. 
Only criminals are guilty. Human guilt was not, could not, 
have been transferred to the Divine Christ. Crime and guilt 
are inseparable companions. So guilt is inseparable from 
sin, and hence was not transferable from the wicked to the 
Just; but the consequences of sin may be, and often are, 
shared by others. Even its direct penalty may be trans- 



328 THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 

ferred to, and paid by, another. Christ had no guilt of his 
own; neither did he assume that of others. The Innocent 
One suffered that the guilty ones might go free. The Blessed 
One was accursed that the accursed ones might be blessed. 
The Living One died that the dead ones might live again. 

The sufferings of Christ doubtless antedate his birth, nor 
did they cease with his ascension. Sufferings of pity and 
compassion moved his great warm heart for fallen humanity 
ere our first parents were driven from their earthly Paradise; 
and sufferings of sympathy and commiseration will accom- 
pany his intercessory prayers until the last lost sinner wdio 
will lay hold of the hope set before him is eternally saved. 

But, added to the above, the flesh brought with it the suf- 
ferings of limitation, misrepresentation, and humiliation, 
such as no other being had ever before experienced. Then 
there was his mental torture, bodily anguish, and soul ago- 
ny without a parallel in the archives of human history. 
Christ suffered both as the Son of Man and as the Son of 
God. His whole nature, his entire being, felt the pangs of 
sorrow and the agonies of soul endured in the bloody gar- 
den and upon the cruel cross. These sufferings spiritualized 
his human susceptibilities and naturalized his Divine sympa- 
thies, until he attained to perfection as the Captain of our 
Salvation. 

Christ's death upon the cross was evidently twofold. It 
was a dual death. It was both spiritual and natural. He 
experienced first the separation of spirits, when he said: 
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! He aft- 
erwards experienced the separation of soul and body, when 
he cried with a loud voice, gave up the ghost, and died. 




% <s 



2 £ 



to •-< ™ 

■S •« -5 
s s> o 



13.8 



THIS DUAL DEATH. 331 

This dual death, as we shall see, was in keeping with his 
heaven-born mission, which was both to redeem and to save 
the world. 

This twofold death of Christ was entirely unselfish. It 
looked not to his own, but to the interests of others. Self- 
ishness has ever been the burden of human hopes, but the 
bane of human happiness. Here we have the only unselfish 
sacrifice of life for love the world has ever known. There 
were no personal ends to attain; neither was there any trea- 
sonable design in the purposes of Jesus against the king- 
doms of this world. The sole object of his earthly mission 
was to build up a spiritual empire, on the principles of truth 
and love, that would ultimately become universal in its sweep 
and sway over the regenerate hearts and renewed spirits of 
all its loyal subjects. In this matchless death the Divine love 
shone forth in all its pristine glory. The Dying Lord not only 
forgot his own interests and forgave his bitterest enemies, but 
during the most intense agonies of his dying passion his own 
wants were lost in his longings after their eternal happiness. 

This death was absolutely essential to the redemption and 
salvation of the world. God could neither redeem nor save 
our race in any other way. This dual death upon the cross 
carries with it a sublime and glorious significance only in 
the light of its absolute necessity to the redemption and sal- 
vation of mankind. The penalty had to be paid in order to 
our deliverance from the condemnation of the law, and with- 
out the shedding of his sacrificial blood there could have 
been no remission of our personal sins. 

He passed under the rod that all might escape the terrors 
of a violated law. He submitted to the ordeal of natural 



332 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL DEATH. 

death that he might bring others back to the enjoyment of 
spiritual life. And the story of his crucifixion will move 
the hearts and moisten the cheeks of his followers with tears 
of sympathy and love as long as this earth rolls in its orbit 
of light around the rising and setting sun. 

Christ's spiritual death looked solely to the redemption of 
our race from the Adamic penalty. It was the redemptive 
feature of his atoning work. In it he paid the death pen- 
alty of the law covenant. Hence his spiritual death upon 
the cross was, in the truest sense of that term, a penal death, 
^ot that he incurred this penalty through personal guilt, ei- 
ther directly or indirectly, but simply in view of the fact 
that he voluntarily assumed its payment in the interest of the 
race he represented as our Second Adam. 

Consequently this spiritual death was universal. It was 
applicable alike to all men. It was unlimited. It embraced 
all races, castes, and conditions of the human family for all 
time to come. He verily tasted spiritual death for every in- 
dividual who lost spiritual life in the fall of our first Adam. 
Thus, from death, by death, Christ became the Liberator or 
Redeemer of the world. 

This spiritual death was also vicarious. It w x as not mere- 
ly in the interests of, but actually in the room and stead of, 
sinners. It w T as a pure case of substitution. The Living 
took the place of the dead. The Redeemer paid the redemp- 
tive price for the redeemed. The God-man died for the un- 
godly sinner as his Legal Substitute and Divine Redeemer. 

This spiritual death brought both the Redeemer and the 
redeemed out from under the law covenant, and placed them 
under the covenant of Divine grace. So his natural death 




THE HIGH PRIEST OF OUR PROFESSION. 



"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers 
of the heavenly calling, consider the Apos- 
tle and High Priest, of our profession, 
Christ Jesus." (Heb. iii. 1.) 



CHRIST'S SACRIFICIAL DEATH. 335 

was under a different covenant and for an entirely different 
purpose. Hence the dissimilarity in the character of these 
two deaths, and the two apparently contradictory lines of 
scripture pointing out these dissimilarities in the redemptive 
and restorative features of his atoning work on Calvary's 
rugged brow. 

The natural death of Christ was purely sacrificial. It was 
merely in the interest of the redeemed. The prime object 
of this sacrificial death was the personal restoration or sal- 
vation of every one who would accept life through the merits 
of this Slain Lamb, and upon the easy and amicable terms 
of the gospel. 

Under the Mosaic economy it was the prerogative of the 
high priest to enter annually the holy of holies and make 
an offering for the sins of all the people. After the way had 
been thus opened up the people could bring their personal 
offerings and present them acceptably unto the Lord. So it 
became, under the Divine economy of grace, the prerogative 
of the High Priest of our Profession to make an offering 
once for all sinners and for all time. The highway of holi- 
ness thus being opened up, any individual can come to the 
mercy seat with his personal offerings, that of a broken heart 
and a contrite spirit, with the utmost assurance that they 
will be acceptable in the sight of the Lord. This Divine 
Offering was of intrinsic and infinite value, and hence needed 
not to be repeated either in time or in eternity. 

Christ is the only priest under the covenant of grace or 
gospel dispensation. The Church no longer needs token 
money after the pure gold has been given. His sacrificial 
death is the vital issue and central epoch in the world's his- 



336 HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH EXPIATORY. 

tory, and the Holy Eucharist which celebrates this free- 
will offering is the central ordinance in the wide circle of 
church life. In the proper observance of this sacred sacra- 
ment there is the closest and sweetest communion between 
the great Head and the humble hearts of the visible church. 
But to find fellowship with Jesus one must humble himself 
until his feelings meet those of a meek and merciful Savior, 
who was ever lovely and lowly in heart. And the central 
power of this sacrificial death lies in its potency to touch, 
tender, and turn the wicked heart of man in its affections 
from the evil to the good, from death unto life. 

This sacrificial death of the Son of God was to the world 
the most wonderful display of Divine love for the lost of 
earth ever witnessed by mortal man. And this mysterious 
love force is not only a constraining power over the hearts' 
of all true believers, influencing them to love God fervently 
and obey him faithfully in this life; it is more: it is a Divine 
source of saving power which begets a love for the Savior in 
the hardest hearts of wicked men, and brings the greatest 
sinners back with deepest contrition and the most affection- 
ate obedience to God. Then the Savior did not empty his 
sacrificial blood upon Calvary's rugged brow T in vain. For 
while he hung a Slain Conqueror upon the Roman Cross 
the love streams of life and salvation poured down the coming 
ages of time like a flood of endless glory from above. 

But the natural death of Christ was also expiatory. It 
covers up the sins of those who seek shelter under the rich 
provisions of Divine grace. For it was in the interests of 
all men, but beneficial only to those who, through faith, 
avail themselves of its endless blessings. This death was 



22 




CHRIST'S DUAL DEATH. 



"It is finished: and he bowed his head, 
and gave up the ghost." (John xix. 30.*^ 



DIED WHEN IT COST MOST TO DIE. 339 

not so much a scene of Divine execution as of Divine expi- 
ation. The Father's wrath was not poured out upon his Son 
as he hung in agonies upon the cross, for the day of his 
wrath has not yet come. It is still in the future reserved 
for those who finally reject the offers of life which come to 
them through the merits of the Crucified Christ. 

Christ's natural death was real, and not simply apparent 
as some assert. He died, to all intents and purposes, just 
as other men die. He passed through the ordeal of physical 
death just as truly as any individual who ever experienced 
a separation of soul and body. He fell under the Divine 
appointment made to all men — once to die — and canceled 
that appointment with his shed blood and dying agonies 
upon the cross. The earth quaked, the rocks rent, the sun 
darkened — in fact all nature bore testimony to the reality of 
the Savior's sacrificial death. 

Christ also died when it cost most to die. The babe falls 
asleep in death, and we are wont to say it has paid a small 
debt. It is better off. It has escaped all the ills and evils 
incident to this life, and is sure of the life to come. We 
would not bring it back if we could, much as we would love 
to embrace it again in the arms of our affections. The aged 
die, and we all but rejoice with them at the approach of the 
death angel. We say death has cheated them out of but few 
days at most. They could not have lived, according to the 
course of nature, much longer any way. And then they are 
done with the trials and afflictions incident to old age, with 
all its failures and infirmities. Weakness has given way to 
strength, sickness has been overshadowed by health, and 
old age has been lost in immortal youth. They have made 



340 HIS MATCHLESS CAREER. 

but little or no sacrifice in death. The death angel was to 
them a welcome guest. But not so when one in the vigor 
of manhood, with the promise of great usefulness before him, 
is called to pass through the trying ordeal of death. Then 
we are wont to exclaim: " O what a pity he could not have 
been spared to his family, his community, and his church 
for a few years more at least! His prospects for a useful 
and successful career were so bright! O how hard it must 
have been for him to submit to the relentless hand of death! 
It must have been a great sacrifice for him to die! And O, 
how earnestly he prayed God to spare his life awhile longer, 
that he might lay up an abundant treasure in heaven against 
the day of his departure! " It was just so with Christ. He 
died in the prime of manhood life, when apparently the most 
prosperous voyage was before him. When his prospects for 
doing increased good, both to the bodies and souls of men, 
were constantly growing brighter; when the circle of his 
earth life usefulness was fast widening, and the fondest 
dreams of his human ambition were about to be realized in his 
matchless career, as the world's greatest and grandest Bene- 
factor — it was at this critical juncture that Jesus put an end 
to all his earthly anticipations and desires relative to the 
future of his life work by voluntarily submitting to the ago- 
nies incident to his crucifixion upon the cross. O what a 
great sacrifice it must have been, looking from the human 
standpoint, for Jesus to lay down his life at this time! ~No 
wonder he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me; extend the limits of life till my plans and purposes 
are accomplished. Yet not my will, as a human being with 
human aspirations, but thy will, as a Divine Being, be done, 



CHRIST DIED FOR US. 341 

at the sacrifice, if need be, of all my earthly honors and en- 
joyments. Indeed, he died when it cost most to die. 

Christ died the most shameful and ignominious of all 
deaths. The Romans had three modes of executing- their 
criminals. Those to whom they would do least disgrace 
they simply beheaded at the executioner's block. Those 
upon whom they would cast a limited degree of contempt 
and disgrace they burned alive at the stake. But those upon 
whom they would cast the greatest possible odium, and for 
whom they would manifest the profoundest contempt and 
aversion, they crucified upon the cross. But to add, if pos- 
sible, to the intensity of this disgraceful death and make it 
more ignominious than all others, they placed on either side 
of the Innocent Xazarene a vile malefactor. 

Christ's death was accompanied by the most extreme ago- 
nies of soul and body. In the Garden of Gethsemane, 
while contemplating the scenes of Calvary, his soul agonies 
were so great as to cause the blood to literally ooze out of 
the pores of his skin and trickle down to the ground. But 
the hour and power of darkness with the Son of God was 
reserved for his spiritual death upon the cross, when he cried, 
in the bitterness of his soul agonies: Eloi, eloi, lama sabac- 
thani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 

Christ died for us. This is a practical thought. What 
have we done for him in return? A wealthy man during 
the great civil war hired a substitute, who was killed in the 
first battle in which he engaged. The rich man had his 
body returned home, interred it in his own family burying 
ground, and reared a monument to his memory, upon which 
he had inscribed these significant words: " lie died for me." 



342 DIED TO LIVE AGAIN. 

Reader, can you afford to be less grateful to Christ, who 
died for you because he loved you, than the rich man was to 
the substitute who died for him because he gave him mon- 
ey to take his chances in the army? Resolve now that you 
will rear a living monument to your Savior in the form of a 
grand symmetrical Christian character, that will ever be- 
speak your heartfelt gratitude to him who, without money 
or price, died that you might live eternally. 

But Christ died to live again. The departing glory of 
man is a setting sun that will rise no more in this life, but 
Christ died to rise and reign again in this world. He yield- 
ed to the claims of death, and the faith of his followers was 
thought to be a delusion, and all their hopes a visionary 
dream. But not so; for on the morning of the third day, 
having spoiled the dominion of death and hell, he came forth 
a Triumphant Conqueror, leading captivity captive, the com- 
bined powers of darkness. And when he passed from death 
to life he left the doors of death's dark dungeons wide open, 
that the whole race of mankind might follow him from the 
grave to glory. 

The resurrection of the race rests upon the resurrection 
of its Risen Redeemer. This is evident from the fact of his 
federal representative nature, and his relation to the first 
representative of the race. For since by the first Adam 
came natural death, even so by the Second Adam nat- 
urally came the resurrection from the dead. Christ was our 
Second Head and Heaven-appointed Representative; and in 
his resurrected, spiritualized, and glorified body he became 
the great Prototype and first fruits of resurrected humanity. 
This great Head of the Church rose from the dead and as- 



:W 




RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 345 

cended up to heaven, and it is but natural that in the process 
of time the body should follow its Living Head. The first 
fruits of the resurrection grace heaven's altar to-day as a 
sacred pledge of that glorious harvest which will leave ten- 
antless all the tombs of earth, and fill heaven with the re- 
united and glorified sonls and bodies of the saints and serv- 
ants of the living God. 

This glorious resurrection of the righteous will reestablish 
the essential union of our souls and bodies, and carry with 
it our wonted personal identity into the joys and blessed- 
ness of the life to come. The absence of the body necessa- 
rily lenders the activities and enjoyments of the soul incom- 
plete. The soul life, however happy in its disembodied state, 
will be much happier when reunited with its resurrected 
body, and privileged to vie with archangels, full orbed, 
around God's eternal throne. We may not be able to point 
out the elements essential to bodily identity, but it is enough 
for us to know that just as our bodies at death are identical 
with our bodies at birth, so our resurrected bodies are to 
bear the same relation to these vile bodies of ours. They 
are to be sown in corruption, and raised in incorruption; 
sown in weakness, and raised in power; sown bodies of 
flesh and blood, but raised spiritualized and glorified bodies 
like unto the Son of God's, which carried with it the marks 
of time to identify it as the same body that once hung in 
agonies by four bleeding wounds on Calvary's cruel cross. 

The resurrection and reunion of the body with the soul, 
accompanied by its personal identity, are absolutely essen- 
tial to the general judgment and the final rewards of the 
wicked and the just. It requires the reunited soul and body 



346 NO SWEETER, TRUER, GRANDER STORY. 

to constitute the historic person who is to be judged and 
acquitted, or condemned, according to the deeds done in the 
body. And we say it reverently, destitute of our personal 
identity, God could not, in justice, at the judgment, point 
out the individual and eternal destiny of the children of 
men 

The above is true in spite of the dissimilarity which will 
doubtless exist between the resurrected bodies of the wick- 
ed and the just; because there are to be different degrees of 
enjoyment and punishment in the great beyond. For, while 
the resurrected bodies of the righteous will be exceedingly 
beautiful in form and glorious in appearance, having put on 
the image of the heavenly, the bodies of the wicked will 
doubtless be raised in deformity, still in the image of the 
earthly, bearing the marks of sin and death, and possessing 
a punitive element, making them a kind of perdition to the 
indwelling souls of the eternally damned. 

Christ died and rose again; and no sweeter, truer, grand- 
er story has ever graced the annals of history than that left 
upon record by the evangelists concerning the death and 
resurrection of the World's Redeemer. When he died dark- 
ness mantled the earth with her ebon hues, and all nature 
mourned his departure; but when he rose again a wave of 
glory surged up against the eastern horizon, and fiery lances 
flashed along the burning skies, while the sun of life, which 
set in sorrow behind the beautiful bowers of Eden four thou- 
sand years before, rose in its majesty and power, and from 
Calvary's rugged summit poured floods of light and life over 
all the inhabitants of this wicked world. 




"TOUCH ME NOT." (Schonhen.) 



"Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; 
for J am not yet ascended to my Father: 
but go to my brethren, and say unto 
them, I ascend unto my Father, and your 
Father; and bo my God, and your God." 
(John xx. 17.) 




THE ASCENSION. (G. Biermann.) 



"And when he had spoken these things, 
while they beheld, he was taken up; and 
a cloud received him out of their sight." 
(Acts i. 9.) 




CHAPTEK XYIIT. 

THE SECOND COMING OF CHBIST. 

What shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the age? 
(Matt. xxiv. 3.) 

HEIST'S second coming is a fact universally ad- 
mitted. JSone dare deny it. The Bible is too 
5 full of the subject. It contains hundreds of ref- 
erences to this important event. The incarna- 
tion itself is not more clearly taught, either in the Old or in 
the New Testament, than is the fact of his coming again to 
this earth, as the man Christ Jesns, to make the kings and 
kingdoms of this world all subservient to his righteous reign 
of a thousand years. Many of the prophecies of the Old 
Testament, quite as clearly as the predictions of the New, 
point unquestionably to the grandeur and glory of his sec- 
ond coming as the King of kings and Lord of lords among 
the nations of the earth. No one subject, perhaps, is referred 
to so frequently or more explicitl}' in the Word of God; and 
certainly no subject is made plainer, in the light of prophe- 
cies already fulfilled and events faithfully foreshadowed, than 
this all-important subject of the Savior's second, personal 
coming to this sin-cnrsed world, to right the wrongs, unify 
the race, and make the kingdoms of this world the kingdom 
of .his millennial reign here on earth. 

Whex Will He Come? 

We fix no dates. We set no time. We make no predic- 

(340) 



350 A SURPRISE TO THE WORLD. 

tions. We simply state a revealed fact when we say, at the 
close of the Gentile dispensation, or at the end of the pres- 
ent age, and not at the end of the world, as many suppose. 
Hence he will come prior, and not subsequent to, his millen- 
nial reign. 

But he will come when we least expect him. His advent 
will be a complete surprise to the world. The great major- 
ity of the human family will not be looking for him. Only 
the few will be waiting and watching for the coming of the 
Son of Man. His announcement will be unexpected and 
unwelcomed by the great masses. As a thief in the night 
manages to take people completely by surprise, so Christ 
will surprise the world by putting in his appearance when 
he is least expected. 

'No one save the Father knows the day or the hour of the 
Son's second advent into this unfriendly world. It may be 
but a few days ahead, or it may be many years in the future. 
It may be at eventide, at midnight, in the early morning 
hours, or at high noon with us. We cannot tell. For of 
that day and hour knoweth no man; not even the angels; 
neither the Son himself; but the Father only. Hence the 
importance of heeding the Savior's injunction, and being 
always on the watch and ever ready lest he also find us un- 
prepared to meet him at his coming. For, in such an hour 
as ye think not, or least think, the Son of Man cometh. And 
as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son 
of Man. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giv- 
ing in marriage, until the flood came and took them away. 
So shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man. Watch ye 
therefore; for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. 



HOW WILL HE COME? 351 

Many commentators hold that a day in prophecy stands 
for a year; and hence they believe that the prophecy of Dan- 
iel throws much light upon the time of Christ's second com- 
ing. They contend that the thousand two hundred and ninety 
days, dating from the taking away of the daily sacrifice of 
the Jews at Jerusalem and the setting up of the abomina- 
tion of the Mohammedans, bring us in the neighborhood of 
the days, or years, allotted to the present age. Others, in- 
fluenced no doubt to some extent by the Jewish tradition 
that the seventh thousand years from the creation of man 
shall be the Sabbatical thousand spoken of in the Bible, ex- 
pect the millennial reign to be ushered in at the close of the 
sixth thousand years of the existence of our race, and to be 
the consummation of the world's history. This view has the 
advantage, at least, of being a very plausible one, and may 
materialize in the millennial reign. 

But How Will He Come? 
It will not be simply a spiritual coming. Neither will it 
be a coming in the person of the death angel. He is here 
already spiritually, and has been through all the passing 
centuries. He camps upon the plains of earth in the person 
of the death angel. He has ever answered to the roll call, 
when needed to summon men from time into eternity. The 
Son of Man will not come merely by proxy. He is here al- 
ready in the person of the Holy Ghost. It will be a literal 
personal coming of the Son of Man. The Man Jesus him- 
self will come again. He said to his disciples: If I go away 
I will come again, that where I am there ye may be also. 
Yes, it will be a visible, bodily coming; for every eye shall 



352 IN LIKE MANNER. 

see him, even they who pierced him, and all the tribes of the 
earth shall mourn because of him. Yes, he shall come in 
like manner as he went up from Mount Olivet, on the day of 
his glorious ascension. He shall come in his own blessed 
person, riding upon the clouds from heaven. For the two 
angels who returned from the skies with that sweet message 
of comfort to his heartbroken disciples said: Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same 
Jesus which is taken up from you iuto heaven shall so come 
in like manner as ye have seen him going into heaven. 
This same Jesus y in like manner. These two facts tell the 
story of his second personal coming in language so plain and 
comprehensive that none, not even the most illiterate, need 
remain ignorant of the how of his rapidly approaching re- 
turn to this world, when his feet shall stand again on Mount 
Sion as the recognized and Legitimate Heir to the royal 
throne of king David, his father, upon which he shall reign 
for a thousand years. 

The personal presence of Christ during his millennial 
reign will constitute the very center, sum, and substance of 
his millennial kingdom. The idea that the church will 
conquer the world, and usher in the golden age of prophecy 
without the personal presence of Jesus on earth, will never 
materialize. We need not look, we cannot hope for an im- 
personal reign over an impersonal kingdom, of mere princi- 
ples, laws, and forces, to conquer the world. " The Christ 
principle," so called, is not enough. AVe need the Christ 
himself. To conquer, subdue, and save this wicked world, 
we want the real Personal Christ upon the throne, vested 
with universal authority and unlimited power. Only place 



23 




THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY ON THE THRONE OF DAVID. 



"He shall be great, and shall be called 
the Son of the Most High: and the Lord 
God shall g-ive unto him the throne of his 
father David." (Luke i. 32, R. V.) 



THE SAVIOR SHALL COME SUDDENLY. 355 

the government of the world upon his shoulders, where 
prophecy puts it, and out of his personal reign will flow, at 
once, the unifying and crystallizing power of a kingdom des- 
tined for universal conquest and endless dominion. 

But the Savior shall come suddenly to our view. Even as 
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shoots with the ra- 
pidity of thought across to the distant west, so the Son of 
Man will girdle the globe with the sign of his personal pres- 
ence, marvelous power, and matchless glory, which will 
startle the world with a terror and amazement such as never 
before filled the hearts of the children of men. Surprise! 
Yes, consternation will strike deep into the hearts of all the 
King's enemies, as his salient light and Divine glory leap 
and roll in their dazzling effulgence and ever-increasing ra- 
diance around the world. Then earthly thrones will totter 
and crumble to the dust, while kings and monarchs fall and 
plead for mercy at his feet. The proud usurpers of ecclesi- 
astical authority will also come down from their places of 
honor and power, to submit to the mandates of heaven. 
Then the oppressed and downtrodden and righteous of 
earth will hail this sunburst of Divine glory upon the world 
as the ushering in of the golden age by ancient bards fore- 
told. 

For almost two thousand years David's throne has been in 
eclipse, but the day will soon dawn when David's greater 
Son will descend in triumph from the skies, mount his prom- 
ised throne, and reign over the twelve tribes of Israel and 
all the nations of the earth, in fulfillment of the prophecy of 
Ilosea, in which Jesus is represented as reigning over Is- 
rael in the latter days, the last or millennial age, after they 



356 IN THE DIVINE GLORY. 

had been without a king, prince, or sacrifice for many clays. 
Jeremiah says that at that time Jerusalem will be the 
throne of the Lord. He will destroy every form of unright- 
eousness among the people, and extend his saving grace to 
all nations, through the agency of his glorified saints and the 
omnipresent power of the Holy Spirit; so that the knowl- 
edge and glory of the Lord will soon cover the whole 
earth, as the waters now cover the basins of the mighty 
deep. 

The Son of Man shall come in the Divine glory of his 
heavenly Father and accompanied by legions of holy angels; 
and yet he shall come in his own matchless glory, which he 
had with the Father before the world began. And seated 
upon the throne of his glory he shall punish the wicked, re- 
ward the righteous, forgive the penitent, and unite the shat- 
tered kingdoms of this world under the benign reign of his 
universal empire, until the glories of that mighty empire fill 
the whole earth with the honors of his name and the riches 
of his grace. Yes, Christ will come with matchless, irresis- 
tible power and great glory, such as the world has never 
known, such as shall put to shame the pomp and pageantry 
of earth's mightiest monarchs, and pale into insignificance 
the glories of the sun and moon and stars themselves, as they 
ride in resplendent grandeur through the heavens, day after 
day and night after night. This will be the ushering in of 
the kingdom of Christ in its glorified state, which will 
eclipse in point of spiritual magnificence and Divine gloiy 
any and everything the world has ever witnessed. It will 
be the crowning glory, the culmination of the Savior's great 
remedial work. 



THERE ARE MANY SIGNS. 357 

The Sights of His Coming. 
There are many signs of Christ's second coming. Proph- 
ecy and history are full of them. They loom up all around 
us, and they startle the world with amazement as they point 
with index fingers to this the greatest event of the ages. 
Look at the list as it lengthens out into lines and paragraphs 
of prophecy, rapidly passing into history as the years go fly- 
ing by on the swift wings of time. In answer to the ques- 
tion, What shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of 
the age? the Savior said, Many shall come in my name, say- 
ing, I am the Christ, and shall lead many astray. This pre- 
diction has certainly had its fulfillment, and as a sign of his 
coming it stands out in bold relief before the world. False 
Christs are rising up of late years on every hand, and the 
most illiterate and unpretentious among them number their 
blind, fanatical, but devoted followers by the hundreds and 
thousands whom they have led astray. It looks, sometimes, 
as though the people want to be deceived; as if they really 
loved to be duped and led in the way of fanaticism by false 
delusions, until they are given over to believe lies that they 
may be damned. But these men work miracles, says one in 
self-defense. Yes, that may all be true; but so did the sor- 
cerers and magicians of Egypt, who withstood Moses and 
Aaron for a time with their hellish enchantments; for they 
cast down every man his rod in imitation of Aaron, and they 
became serpents. But to demonstrate the superiority of the 
Lord's miraculous power over that of Satan Aaron's rod 
swallowed up their rods. The devil has lost none of his de- 
ceptive power along the line of working miracles through 
his false christs; but their miracles are not comparable to 



358 WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS. 

those which shall be wrought by the true Christ at his coin- 
ing, and hence none need be deceived by them. 

But the Savior also told his disciples that they should hear 
of wars and rumors of wars before this Gentile age should 
end or this Gospel dispensation be brought to a close. He 
said that nation would rise against nation, and kingdom 
against kingdom, while there would be famines, pestilences, 
and earthquakes in divers places. But these were to be but 
the beginning of sorrows. These signs have certainly made 
their appearance upon the world's political horizon, for one 
war has followed another of late with a rapidity unknown in 
the annals of the bloody record of the past ages. Xation, 
to-day as never before, is rising up against nation, and king- 
dom against kingdom, all over the world; and wars and 
rumors of wars are so numerous as to threaten the peace, 
menace the prosperity, and destroy the tranquillity of all 
kindred and peoples under the sun; while famines, pesti- 
lences, and earthquakes follow in the wake, adding further 
death and destruction to the consternation and terrors of 
wars and rumors of wars. 

Such widespread devastation and misery in the midst of 
plenty, with our wonderful facilities for transportation, chal- 
lenge the thoughtful and prayerful consideration of the reli- 
gious world. It is indeed a sad, sad condition of things that 
cannot be counteracted even by the most humane and philan- 
thropic efforts of the Christian world. And yet this seems to 
be but the beginning of sorrows which are destined to deepen 
and widen with the march of time and the flight of a few re- 
maining years, when it will broaden into the heartrending 
and soul-agonizing scenes of the last days of the Gentile 



THE CRY OF PEACE. 359 

dispensation — scenes spoken of in the Bible as not having 
been equaled in the world's history prior to, nor yet to fol- 
low, the black record of this, the most terrible of all tribula- 
tions to the children of men. 

The cry of peace and safety in the face of danger and in 
the very jaws of death is another sign of his approaching 
advent. Paul says that the day of the Lord so cometh as a 
thief in the night. For when they are saying peace and 
safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they 
shall in nowise escape. The leaders of the nations are, in 
these perilous times, talking about a universal reign of peace 
on earth. They are crying peace! peace! when there is but 
little or no prospect of peace. Some of them base their hopes 
of peace on the introduction and acceptance, by the leading 
governments, of an international law of arbitration. Such 
a law, they imagine, would practically prevent war and give 
the world a universal reign of peace and good will among 
the nations. Others are seconding the disarmament propo- 
sition recently made to the nations by the Czar of Russia. 
They suppose that nations without armies would naturally 
live in peace with each other. But the inference is not a le- 
gitimate one. But so the cry goes out, peace! peace! when 
there is no peace; but while wars and rumors of wars are 
heard on every hand. 

The British government is strongly in favor of arbitration; 
but with thirty miles of Avar ships and a standing army of 
hundreds of thousands, she keeps on increasing her army 
and strengthening her navy as though war was inevitable. 
But England is only serving as a vanguard for the nations 
in this respect. They are all following in her wake. Even 



360 THE SIGNS ARE OMINOUS. 

the peace-loving people of the United States have caught 
the war fever, and while there is a cry of peace sounding 
over the land, there seems to be a preference in the hearts 
of many for war and conquest. So the work of enlarging 
our standing army and increasing our already magnificent 
navy, putting us on a war footing with the most powerful 
nations of the old world, goes steadily on, at the command 
of public opinion. The signs are ominous. "War clouds are 
numerous. The muttering thunders are deep and prolonged. 
The lightning flashes, sudden and terrific. The intervals 
are short, and the repetitions more significant and pro- 
nounced. In the light of Divine Revelation it looks very 
much like the great battle of Armageddon might not be very 
far in the future. 

Jesus added another sign to the long list, saying that they 
should deliver up his faithful followers to be afflicted, put to 
death, and hated of all nations on his account. We see this 
sign standing out most vividly in the persecution and mas- 
sacre of the Armenian Christians by the Kurds and Turks. 
And this same spirit is manifesting itself, on a smaller scale, 
in all lands where the gospel is preached; and the lives of 
truly devoted men and women condemn the lives of the 
worldly and the wicked, whether in or out of the church. 
The deepening of piety on the part of the few, and a revival 
of the spirit of persecution on the part of the many, no mat- 
ter in what form, or from what source such persecutions 
come to the true followers of Jesus, they are but additional 
signs of Christ's second coming to punish the wicked, re- 
ward the righteous, and save this old sin-cursed world from 
irretrievable wreck and endless ruin. 



MANY FALSE PROPHETS. 361 

Christ gives ns, as another sign of his second coming, the 
fact that in the last days many should become offended, hat- 
ing and betraying one another. Both civic and ecclesiasti- 
cal history bear record to the fulfillment of this prediction 
in many instances, the appearance of this sign both in 
Church and State, on many occasions. The black-hearted 
demon of prejudice and the green-eyed monster of jealousy 
are marching hand in hand to-day through the official circles 
of both Church and State the world over, arraying men and 
women against each other in sore conflict, who ought to be 
marching on, shoulder to shoulder, and heart knit to heart, 
in trying to win the world for Jesus. 

The Savior further said that many false prophets, or teach- 
ers, should rise in these last days and deceive many. Those 
who are at all conversant with the state of affairs to-day 
know that this sign is seen in a multitude of isms and schisms, 
through which the people are being deceived and led away 
from the " old paths where is the good way," and where 
alone we can find rest to our souls and add assurance to our 
hopes. These false prophets cause the people to say of this 
"good old way:" " AYe will not walk therein.'' And thus 
they are left to eat of the fruit of their own doings, because 
they hearken not to the words of the Lord at the mouths of 
his true servants when they cry aloud and spare not, but 
show Israel her sins and the Lord's people their transgres- 
sions against God. 

Jesus also told his disciples that in these perilous times 
iniquity should be multiplied, and that the love of many 
should wax cold. Iniquity does abound already. It is be- 
ing multiplied every decade. There were four thousand 



362 THE SIN OF ADULTERY. 

murders in this country in the year eighteen hundred and 
eighty-six, there were ten thousand in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninetv-six; and at that ratio of increase there 
will be twenty-five thousand in nineteen hundred and six. 
Sin is on the increase, the world over. There are thirty 
thousand prostitutes in Chicago at the present time. 
Washington City is said to be full of the same class. This 
sin of adultery is rapidly honeycombing the nations of 
the earth. It has gotten to be looked upon in high places 
as all but a necessary evil. It is possibly the greatest sin 
of the age, affecting alike the society of the civilized and 
the savage, the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the 
white and the black, the learned and the illiterate. Like 
the accursed liquor traffic, it is to be found everywhere, and 
cannot be outlawed anywhere. Many of our large cities are 
simply dens of vice, and their daily newspapers largely rec- 
ords of crime of every conceivable character, from murder 
of the blackest dye down to petty larceny of the smallest 
type. 

Even those who reject the idea of Christ's coming in per- 
son, but expect the church, in his absence, to Christianize 
the world, and usher in the millennial reign, are forced to 
confess that iniquity is rampant in the world to-day, and 
that the love of the great multitudes is waxing cold. Of 
many churches it can truthfully be said : They are neither 
hot nor cold; they are waxing cold. People may say what 
they please about the world getting better. The Bible says 
it will get worse and worse in the latter days. But evil men 
and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and 
being deceived, until the destruction of the people will be- 



PAUL'S LIFELIKE PICTURE. 363 

come so great that, but for the shortening, for the elect's 
sake, of the days of this terrible tribulation no flesh would 
be saved. For false Christs and false prophets shall show 
great signs and wonders in those days; insomuch that, 
were it possible, they would deceive the very elect. 

Paul gives us a lifelike picture of this wicked world as 
we find it to-day, when he says: But know this, in the last 
days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of 
self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient 
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, 
implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers 
of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure 
more than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but 
having denied the power thereof; from these also turn away. 
For of these are they that creep into houses, and take cap- 
tive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts. 
These are men corrupted in mind, and reprobate, as without 
judgment concerning the faith. What a terribly dark pic- 
ture! But any one with his eyes open, who travels about 
over the country to any great extent, can see plainly that 
this prophecy is being fulfilled to-day. 

Things are already black, but they are still getting black- 
er. The picture is already terribly dark; but it is constant- 
ly getting darker, and will continue to deepen and widen 
its withering, blasting, blackening, damning shadows over 
the nations of the earth until the Sun of Righteousness rises 
with healing in his beams, and drives back the black clouds 
of sin and death, and lights up this dark world with the glo- 
ries of his millennial reign. 

As another sign of his second coming, Christ says: And 



364 IN THE TIME OF THE END. 

this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole 
world, for a testimony unto all the nations, and then shall 
the end, not of the world, but of this dispensation come. 
This sign is also making its appearance on the politico-reli- 
gious horizon. There is not a nation or kingdom of any 
consequence on the globe to-day but is either open or being 
opened to the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. 
And the facilities for carrying the good news to the four 
quarters of the earth are so rapidly increasing that it will 
require but a few years at most for a thoroughly consecra- 
ted ministry of only a few thousand men to carry the gospel 
of the kingdom wherever it has not yet been preached, as a 
witness to all nations of the second coming of Christ, as the 
Rightful Heir to a universal scepter, which he will wield over 
all peoples when he mounts the royal throne of his father 
David, to reign over a universal kingdom that shall know 
no end. 

Daniel says that in the time of the end many shall run to 
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. This prophecy 
is being fulfilled of late years to the very letter. The evan- 
gelism of the last two decades is literally carrying men to 
and fro over all the earth in their efforts to evangelize the 
world. The travels here and there over the land of D. L. 
Moody, Sam P. Jones, and many other noted evangelists, 
are but so many striking illustrations of the fulfillment of 
this scripture. Not only do men run to and fro in these lat- 
ter days, but knowledge of every conceivable kind is being- 
wonderfully increased. Not alone by the ministry and mis- 
sionaries is the good work being carried on, but through 
tracts, books, the increased circulation of the Bible in differ- 



PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD. 365 

ent languages, and in many other ways is the knowledge of 
the religion of the cross being increased in the world. And 
when he has come whose right it is to reign, his knowledge 
shall cover the whole earth even as the waters now cover 
the channels of the briny deep. 

In the light of these scriptures the missionary movements 
of to-day are strangely and wonderfully significant. The 
angel of the apocalypse is flying through the heavens, 
preaching the everlasting gospel to all the nations of the 
earth. Thousands of consecrated missionaries are already 
running to and fro in all the earth, offering the good tidings 
of full salvation to all men upon the easy and amicable terms 
of the gospel. The midnight cry will soon be sounded out 
far and wide over all the world, Behold, the Bridegroom 
cometh! Go ye out to meet him! Prepare to meet thy 
God, O Israel! 

Once more the Savior said: When, therefore, ye see the 
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
standing in the holy place, then look out for the great trib- 
ulation which is to follow. For Daniel said, referring to the 
occupation of the holy temple by the followers of Moham- 
med, Upon the wing of abomination shall come one that 
maketh desolation, even until the Divine wrath be poured 
out upon the desolator at the consummation of his utter de- 
struction. For there shall be great tribulation, such as has 
not been from the beginning of the world until now — no, nor 
ever shall be. 

The opening of prophecies which have been sealed up for 
centuries is another most significant sign of Christ's second 
coming. Daniel very much desired to know the meaning 



366 RETURN OF THE JEWS TO JERUSALEM. 

of his own prophecies along this line, but the Lord refused 
to gratify his curiosity. So when Daniel insisted on an in- 
terpretation of his own prophecies, saying, O my Lord, 
what shall be the issue of these things? the Lord simply 
said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and 
sealed till the time of the end. Then they shall be opened 
up and understood. For many shall be purified, and made 
white and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly, and shall 
not understand; but the wise shall understand. . . . Bat 
go thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt 
stand in thy lot at the end of the days. The partial fulfill- 
ment of these most interesting prophecies necessarily throws 
much light upon them. So that while the wicked still fail 
to understand, the wise begin more perfectly to compre- 
hend their hidden meaning in the light of a Coming Christ. 
The return of the Jews to Jerusalem is regarded by many 
as another infallible sign of Christ's second coming. This 
peculiar people, after having been scattered abroad among 
the nations of the earth for nearly two thousand years, with- 
out losing their racial identity, are now returning by the 
thousands to Palestine, the home of their fathers, the good- 
ly land that once flowed with milk and honey. The ]N"ew 
Jerusalem, outside the walls of the Old City, is already the 
larger city of the two. Rothschild, of England, an extremely 
wealthy Jew, holds a mortgage on the whole of the Promised 
Land, which mortgage he may foreclose at any time he pleas- 
es in the interests of his people. Many other wealthy and 
influential Jews are specially interested in the return of 
their race to the Holy Land. A very few years may suffice 
to fill all Palestine, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the 



THE REVIVAL OF SPIRITUALISM. 367 

descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. This repeo- 
pling of Palestine with the Jews would very naturally cre- 
ate a demand for the legitimate heir to David's throne. 
This heirship could be traced to none other than David's 
Greater Son, the Babe of Bethlehem, the Crucified Naza- 
rene, God's Appointed Heir to Israel's royal throne. For the 
angel of the annunciation said to the Virgin Mary: He 
shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: 
to him shall be given the throne of his father David; and he 
shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his 
kingdom there shall be no end. This is the kingdom which 
is to be set up by the God of heaven, never to be destroyed 
or left to other people; but it is to break in pieces and con- 
sume all existing kingdoms, and stand forever, even to the 
end of the world, when it will be transferred to heaven and 
endure eternally. 

The revival of spiritualism is another evidence that we are 
bordering pretty closely upon the second advent of the Son 
of God. Xow the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the lat- 
ter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to 
seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils, or demons, 
through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, being brand- 
ed in their own consciences as with a hot iron. Spiritualism 
is very common now in all our larger cities and in many of the 
smaller ones. These seances and midnight services are sup- 
ported largely by Christians who have departed from the faith 
of their fathers, having given heed to the seduction of evil 
spirits through the hypocritical liars, whose lives are domi- 
nated by demons rather than by the Holy Spirit. 

In Paris and other large cities many persons are said to 



368 THE SIGN OF HIS COMING. 

meet for the express purpose of worshiping the demons of 
darkness; while thousands upon thousands all over our 
land, whether they meet avowedly for that purpose or not, 
meet all the same, in their midnight bacchanalian revelries 
in the service of the same demons of endless despair. And 
they will receive their reward from the same hands as vota- 
ries at the same hellish shrine. 

In the last days of these perilous times there shall be signs 
of his coming in the sun, moon, and stars, says the Savior; 
and upon the earth great distress of nations in perplexity; 
the sea and the waves roaring; men fainting for fear, 
and the expectation of the things that are coming on the 
world; for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then 
he adds: Watch ye therefore, at every season, that ye may 
be counted worthy to escape all these things; and to stand 
before the Son of Man at his coming. 

The Sig:n oe His Coming. 
We have already given you many signs. We will now 
give you the sign of his coming — the one which will immedi- 
ately precede and announce his glorious advent into the world. 
Immediately after the tribulation of those awful days the sun 
shall be darkened at midday; the moon shall cease to give her 
accustomed complement of light, and the stars shall befalling 
from heaven; and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, 
by the power of Almighty God: and then shall appear the 
sign of the Son of Man in heaven. This will give the world 
a day that shall be neither light nor dark. Zeohariah says, 
It shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be 
clear nor dark: but that it shall be a day, known unto the 



THE PURPOSES OF HIS COMING. o69 

Lord, as neither day nor night: but at evening' time it shall 
be light. In that day, living waters shall go out from Jeru- 
salem to the eastern and western seas, and the Lord shall be 
King over all the earth. 

Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man. We can- 
not tell just what this sign will be. It will doubtless be 
some glorious and startling phenomena in the heavens, made 
the more resplendent and dazzling because of the mysteri- 
ous twilight day, upon which it makes its wonderful appear- 
ance. And yet the world will no doubt recognize in it the 
prelude to the King's glorious appearance. AYhen we see it 
w T e will know that the coining of the Son of Man is at hand, 
even at the door. This sign will not be a stationary one, I 
suppose; but, like lightning, it will shoot all around and all 
over the world with the rapidity of thought, in a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye, announcing to all peoples, kindred, 
and tongues of earth the immediate and glorious advent of 
the King of kings and Lord of lords; before whom every 
knee shall bow, and to whom every tongue shall confess, 
that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 

The Purposes of His Coming. 

The purposes of Christ's second coming are many and va- 
ried. In this connection we can only call your attention to 
a few of the more important purposes for which the Son of 
God will come to this earth again. In the first place, it is 
his purpose to gather together his saints from the four quar- 
ters of the earth, both the living and the dead. For Ave are 
told that when the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven 

he will send forth his angels, with a great sound of a trumpet, 
24 



370 THE WEDDING SUPPER. 

and they shall gather together his elect from the four 
winds, from one end of heaven to the other. And these shall 
all be changed in body from the mortal to the immortal, from 
the corruptible to the incorruptible, from the natural to the 
spiritual. For we shall not all sleep; but we shall all be 
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the 
sound of the last trump. For this trump of God will also 
awake the dead in Christ, who shall be raised incorruptible. 
For we that are alive, that are left until the coming of the 
Lord, shall not prevent them that are asleep. For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first — take part in the first resurrec- 
tion — the resurrection out from among the dead; then we 
that are alive, that were left, shall, together with them, be 
caught up in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
Not merely during the millennial reign of a thousand years, 
b,ut through all eternity. 

While in midair with the Savior the wedding supper will 
be served to his saints. The voices of the vast multitudes 
will be heard, in their sweet halleluiahs of gladness and rejoi- 
cing, giving power, honor, and dominion to him who is seated 
upon the throne of his glory, saying as with the voices of 
many waters, and mighty thunderings, Alleluiah! for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The marriage of the Lamb 
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. For it shall 
be given her that she shall array herself in fine linen, bright 
and pure, which represents the righteousness of the saints. 
And the voice that came forth out of the throne said : Write, 
Blessed are they which are bidden unto the marriage supper 



SEVEN BOWLS OF DIVINE WRATH. 371 

of the Lamb. Then festal honors, such as this world has 
never known, will be meted out to the saints of the Most 
High. It will be a celestial banquet in the heavenlies, with 
angels as attendants, while the saints are the highly honored 
guests of the King of Glory. 

But while these glorious scenes are transpiring in the 
heavens above, very different scenes indeed will be wit- 
nessed on the earth beneath; for the rejoicing of the saints 
will be largely the result of the overthrow of their enemies, 
and the fall of Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and 
the abomination of the whole earth. Here the seven angels, 
with the seven last plagues, will be commissioned to go forth 
and pour out the seven bowls of Divine wrath upon the 
wicked inhabitants of this earth. 

The first angel will go forth and empty his plague into 
the earth, and it will become a noisome and grievous sore 
upon the men who bear the mark of the beast or worship his 
image. The second angel will go forth and pour out his 
plague into the sea, which will become blood as of a dead 
man, and every living soul, even every living thing in the 
sea, will die. The third angel will pour out his plague into 
the rivers and the fountains of waters, and they will be turned 
to blood. And then the angel of the waters will say, Thou 
art righteous, O Lord, which art and wast and shall be, be- 
cause thou hast judged thus. For they poured out the blood 
of saints and prophets, and blood hast thou given them to 
drink; and the angelic chorus will be heard, saying, Even 
so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judg- 
ments, thou King of Saints. The fourth angel will pour his 
bowl out upon the sun, and power will be given it to scorch 



372 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 

men with fire, and men will be scorched with great heat, 
and they will blaspheme the name of the God who hath the 
powder over these plagues, and they will not repent to give 
God the glory. The fifth angel will pour out his plague 
upon the throne of the beast, and his kingdom will be filled 
with darkness, and they will gnaw their tongues for pain, 
And they will blaspheme the God of heaven because of their 
pain and sores, and they will not repent of their wicked 
works. The sixth angel will pour out his plague upon the 
great river Euphrates, and its waters will be dried up, that 
the way may be made ready for the coming of the kings from 
the rising of the sun. Then, coming out of the mouths of 
the dragon, the beast, and the false prophets will be seen 
three spirits of devils working signs, and they will go forth 
unto the kings of the whole earth to gather them together 
unto the battle of that great day of God the Almighty. And 
they will gather themselves together into the place called 
Armageddon. Then the seventh angel will pour out his 
plague into the air, and there will come forth a great voice 
out of the temple from the throne, saying, It is done. Then 
will follow lightnings, voices, thunders, and a great and 
mighty earthquake, such as the w T orld has never known. 
And the great City will be divided into three parts, and the 
cities of the nations will fall, and Babylon the great will be 
remembered in the sight of God, who will give unto her the 
cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Then every 
island shall flee away, and the mountains shall not be found, 
and great hailstones will fall upon men out of heaven, and 
they will continue to blaspheme God because of the plague 
of hail, which will be exceeding great and destructive. 



SEVERAL YEARS IN MIDAIR. 616 

And now the woman who has been for so long drunken 
with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus Christ, and 
who has been virtually reigning over the kings of the earth 
for more than a thousand years, will herself be drinking the 
wine of the wrath of the Almighty God in her own eternal 
overthow. Her sins will have at last reached even unto 
heaven, and God will have remembered her iniquities and 
taken vengeance into his own hands and rewarded her as 
she rewarded his saints, doubling unto her according to her 
wicked works, until the smoke of her torment shall rise up 
even to heaven, indicative of her utter and eternal destruc- 
tion; and so God will have avenged the blood of his servants 
at her hands. 

So finally, after a stay possibly of several years in midair, 
the King, clad in the habiliments of a mighty warrior, 
mounted on a white horse, and followed by the armies of the 
saints on white horses and clad in white linen, will descend 
to earth as a faithful and Righteous Ruler to make war 
against all who still refuse to recognize his right to reign 
as King of kings over all the earth. Out of his mouth shall 
proceed a sharp sword with which he will smite the nations 
as with a rod of iron, until he calls the fowls of heaven to- 
gether to the supper of the great God, that they may feast 
upon the flesh of kings, captains, and mighty men who op- 
pose him as the Rightful Ruler of this world, having arrayed 
themselves against him and the armies of his saints. This 
battle will be fought and this victory will be won by the 
breath of his mouth, and the fowls of heaven be filled with 
the flesh of his enemies. Thus the King will gather out of 
his kingdom everything that offends and all who do iniquity. 



374 THE NEW JERUSALEM. 

He will now send an angel to lay hold on Satan, that old 
dragon, bind him in chains, cast him into the bottomless pit, 
and shut and seal it up, that he may deceive the nations no 
more during the millennial reign of a thousand years. 

At this juncture the King will renovate the earth and all 
of its surroundings, giving us in the enriching of its soil, 
the change of its climates, and the purification of the atmos- 
phere a new earth and a new heaven, wherein is to dwell 
righteousnesss, while the old earth and the old heaven with 
their Adamic curses will pass away and be numbered with 
the things that were and are not. Thus the curse will be 
lifted from the face of the earth and the traces of sin eradi- 
cated forever from earth and air on land and sea the world 
over. 

The King will now be established upon his throne — the 
throne of universal dominion — with the ^\ew Jerusalem, not 
the Heavenly Jerusalem, as the seat of his world-wide king- 
dom. He will now fulfill his promise to the twelve apostles 
by placing them upon twelve thrones as his chief sub-rulers 
over the twelve tribes of Israel. And so prophets and mar- 
tyrs and saints, as kings and priests unto God, will all have 
assigned them positions of honor in this glorious kingdom, 
and as assistant rulers help to govern the world, while shar- 
ing with the King of kings the glories of his millennial 
reign of a thousand years. 




CHAPTER XIX. 

THE MILLENNIAL REIGN OF CHRIST. 

And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Rev. xx. 4.) 

HE millennium will be the acme of the ages, the 
crown of time, the culmination of the great Re- 
medial System. The word millennial means a 
thousand years, pertaining to the millennium, 
during which time Satan shall be confined in the bottomless 
pit, while the saints of all ages shall live and reign as kings 
and priests with Christ on this earth in all the raptures, and 
blessedness of his millennial glory, as King of kings and 
Lord of lords over the whole earth. 

During the first three centuries of the Christian era, when 
many of the saints suffered martyrdom, the millennium 
loomed up before their minds constantly as the golden age 
of prophecy in which all wrongs should be righted and the 
blood of the martyrs forever avenged. The early Christians 
all interpreted the second advent of Christ literally, and 
none thought of it as other than premillennial, or of the 
millennium as other than a literal, personal reign of Christ 
and his resurrected and glorified saints on the earth. 

Xot until about the close of the second century were 
there any objections raised to these Biblical views of the 
second coming aud personal reign of Christ during the mil- 
lennium. Then one Cains, a Roman presbyter, led an op- 
position element against the idea of a literal advent and a 

(375) 



376 A MORE RIDICULOUS THEORY. 

personal reign. In the third century Origen championed 
the cause of the opposition, claiming that the millennium 
would consist only in the spiritual delights to be enjoyed by 
the souls of the saints raised to spiritual perfection in the 
world to come. Still later Jerome also gave a spiritual in- 
terpretation to this subject, as recorded in the twentieth 
chapter of Revelation, losing sight of the fact, it would 
seem, that, while Scripture may have a spiritual application, 
that does not prevent its having at the same time an out- 
ward and literal meaning and fulfillment. 

But, on the triumph of Christianity over paganism, in the 
fourth century, the view gradually obtained that this mil- 
lennial glory had already begun — that the martyrs and 
persecuted followers of the Lowly Nazarene had already 
risen, and were reigning then spiritually with Jesus, though 
unseen by the natural eye, and that Jesus himself would not 
make his second personal appearance until the consumma- 
tion of earthly things, when he would come as the Judge 
of all the world. 

In the latter part of the tenth century a still more ridicu- 
lous theory of the millennium gained extensive credence in 
the church. It was believed by many that the millennium 
was ushered in by the first advent of Jesus, and hence was 
nearing its close. Many of them, thinking they would have 
no further need of their property, and hoping in that way to 
atone for their sins, turned over their estates by deed or be- 
quest to the church, to take effect at the end of the thousand 
years. Of course they lost all, just what the leaders in the 
church doubtless anticipated. 

¥ow two opinions prevail on this subject. One is that 



THE LENGTH OF HIS REIGN. 377 

the millennium will be brought about, through the efficacy 
of the church, under the guidance and blessings of the 
Holy Spirit, in the absence of a Personal Christ. This 
opinion gives Jesus only a spiritual presence in the world 
during the millennium, in which he will reign only in spirit 
in the hearts of nearly all mankind, returning in person only 
at the end of that reign to judge the world and assign saint 
and sinner their portion in the world to come. 

The other opinion, which we believe to be the scriptural 
one, is that the millennial reign of Christ will be a literal, 
personal reign of the Savior on this earth as the Son of Man, 
seated upon the throne of his father David, as the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, with his saints as associates and 
assistant kings and priests, having rulership in a real, liter- 
al kingdom over all the tribes and peoples of the earth for a 
thousand years. But let us turn to the law and to the tes- 
timony for light on this very interesting and important sub- 
ject. 

The Lexgth of His Reigx. 

The length of this reign is definitely stated. It will last a 
thousand years. This statement is made over and over 
again. And there is no good reason why Ave should give it 
a figurative or spiritual interpretation to mystify its mean- 
ing, when a commonsense view of it harmonizes it with all 
other scriptures on this subject, in the absence of all such 
mystification. When we deem it incredible for Christ to 
spend a thousand years here on earth, we forget that a thou- 
sand years as compared to eternity is as one day; and one 
day as a thousand years with the Lord. But if he could 
spend the third of a century in this wicked world as the man 



378 THE PLACE OF HIS REIGN. 

of sorrows, who was so well acquainted with grief as to be 
perfected through suffering; is it so unreasonable to believe 
that he would hesitate to spend ten centuries here among 
his saints as the highly honored and adored King of kings 
during the millennial reign of righteousness over the chil- 
dren of men? We think not, and hence hope to share the 
glories of his personal reign on earth for a thousand years. 

The Place of His Reigx. 

The place w T here this reign is to transpire is not less defi- 
nitely stated or implied. It is to take place here on this 
earth, after its renovation as by fire. When we have a new 
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, 
then the tabernacle of God will be set up among men even 
on this earth; and he will dwell with them, and they shall be 
his people, and he will be their God. And he will wipe 
away every tear from their eyes; and among them death 
shall be no more; neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more 
pain; for the former things shall have passed away; for he 
who sitteth upon the throne shall have made all things new. 

The Character of His Reigx. 

The character of Christ's reign is also given. It is to be 
preeminently a righteous reign. Isaiah said : Behold a King 
shall reign in righteousness; and princes rule in judgment. 
And this is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord 
our Righteousness. Daniel speaks of this reign as the bring- 
ing in of everlasting righteousness. Then shall judgment 
roll down like rivers of waters, and righteousness as mighty 
streams, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the 



IT WILL BE A GLORIOUS REIGN. 379 

whole earth, even as the waters cover the channels of the 
mighty deep. Malachi saw the Savior at this time, rising 
upon the earth, as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in 
his wings for all them that fear his glorious name. But this 
same great and terrible day of the Lord shall bring utter 
destruction to all those who oppose his most righteous reign. 
In this reign all the wrongs of the past will be righted. 
Justice and equity will prevail everywhere. Oppression will 
be unknown. Bondage will be a thing of the past. The 
song of liberty will be heard on every hand. Health and 
happiness will be the common heritage of all men. Joy and 
gladness will fill every soul. Peace and prosperity will 
girdle the earth. Christ's reign will be in striking contrast 
with those of the wicked kings and monarchs of the past. 
The reigns of even the wisest and the best of earth's sover- 
eigns will not be comparable to the righteous reign of our 
Royal Redeemer. 

It Will Be a Glorious Reig:nt. 

When the King is once seated upon the royal throne of 
David, the House of Jacob will arise and shine with une- 
qualed brightness, the glory of the Lord having risen upon 
her. Then the sons and daughters of Israel will gather 
themselves together from afar, and the Gentiles will gladly 
come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising. 
The wealth of nations will flow rapidly into her coffers, and 
the House of Jacob will become the House of his Glory. 
The inhabitants of the earth, representatives from every na- 
tion under the sun, will once more flock together at Jerusa- 
lem. They will fly as clouds in the heavens, and as doves 



380 A UNIVERSAL REIGN. 

through the air, they will make their way to the windows of 
the Lord's House, which stand open continually day and 
night, that the forces of the Gentiles may enter in at their 
coming:. For the nations and "kingdoms that will not come 
in and serve Israel's King shall perish; they shall be utter- 
ly destroyed. And Jerusalem shall be called the City of 
the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. She shall be 
an eternal excellency, the joy of many generations, for the 
Lord shall be her everlasting light, and our God her glory. 

As Christ will be the most glorious of all kings, so his will 
be the most glorious of all kingdoms. The greatness and 
grandeur and glory of all other kings and kingdoms, even in 
their palmiest days, will pale into insignificance before the 
dazzling splendors and effulgent glories of this King of 
kings, and the superlative magnificence of his millennial 
kingdom. 

It Will Be a Universal Reigjn. 

The extent of Christ's reign is also given. It is to be uni- 
versal. It will include all people, kindred, and tongues of 
this earth. Every principality and power on earth, whether 
great or small, must submit to his righteous reign, or be 
blotted out of existence, and give place to a better govern- 
ment. For all the kingdoms of this world are to become the 
kingdoms of our Lord during his millennial reign. It is then 
that the heathen will be given him for an inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. His king- 
dom will have no end. It will be an everlasting kingdom. 
At the end of the thousand years it will be turned over by 
the Son to the Father, transferred to heaven, Avhere it will 
be established as the sun forever and ever; and as the moon 



A PARTNERSHIP REIGN. 381 

in heaven it shall be a faithful witness to God's fidelity to 
David, when he swore to him by his holiness that his throne 
should endure as the days of heaven. 

"Christ shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run, 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 

It Will Be a Partnership Reigx. 

But best of all, the saints shall reign with Christ in this 
glorious kingdom as kings and priests unto God for a thou- 
sand years. Yes, Jesus will share with the blood-washed 
throng the honors and glories of his millennial reign without 
in the least detracting from his own inherent and eternal 
glory. The saints are heirs of God to this glorious inherit- 
ance. They are joint heirs w T ith Christ to David's throne. 
They are the true seed of Abraham, and the rightful inher- 
itors of the everlasting kingdom. Daniel says : The saints of 
the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it for- 
ever. And when the Ancient of Days comes judgment or 
government will be given to the saints of the Most High. 
And again the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of 
the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the 
people of the saints of the Most High. 

Paul said the saints should judge the world. Christ told 
his apostles that when the Son of Man should sit on the 
throne of his glory they should sit on twelve thrones judg- 
ing the twelve tribes of Israel, with the honor of eating and 
drinking at his table in his kingdom. And in Revelations 
he promises all overcomers that they shall sit with him in 



382 THE DESIGN OF THIS REIGN. 

his throne, with authority over the nations; even as he over- 
came and sat down with his Father in his throne in heaven. 
We are also distinctly taught in this same book that the 
saints shall live and reign with Christ here on earth during 
the millennium of a thousand years. 

The sweet singer of Israel, referring to this joint reign of 
the saints with Jesus, said: Let the saints be joyful in glory; 
not in heaven, but on earth ; let them sing aloud upon their 
beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and 
a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon 
the heathen, and punishment upon the people, to bind their 
kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to 
execute upon them the judgment written. This honor have 
all the saints. Praise ye the Lord. 

The Design of This Reign. 

The design of the millennial reign of Christ is evidently 
manifold. The primary object, however, is doubtless to 
consummate the work of the great Remedial System. In or- 
der to prepare people for heaven, it is not enough that they 
simply be regenerated, and purified in heart condition and 
life state. There needs to be an unfolding of the life princi- 
ples imparted in this restoration, a development of the em- 
bryonic state of grace into which they have been introduced; 
and the time of an ordinary life seems to be entirely too 
short for the accomplishment of this wonderful work. 
Hence in order to get the full benefits of the atonement 
made by Jesus Christ, after the seed principles have all been 
sown in our hearts, and begin to develop and bear rich fruit- 
age in our lives, it is necessary that we have time and envi- 




THE VICTORY OF THE SAINTS. 

The seed of the woman shall bruise 
the serpent's head. (Gen. iii. 15.) 



"For whatsoever is born of God over- 
cometh the world: and this is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our 
faith." (1 John v. 4.) 



A MOST AVOXDERFUL PLACE. 385 

ronments proportionate to the work to be done or the task 
to be accomplished. 

Heaven is a most wonderful place. ISo defects nor im- 
perfections characterize its inhabitants. Nothing impure 
or unholy can ever enter its Sanctum sanctorium, or Holy 
of holies. Then, to feel ourselves perfectly at home, and 
fully enjoy heaven, we must be in sweet and blissful accord 
with all our glorious environments. We must feel at home 
among the angels and archangels; yes, even in the presence 
of our Thrice-holy God, if heaven to us is to be a real heav- 
en. Xow while our disembodied spirits are no doubt admit- 
ted to the heavenly Paradise at death, where they remain un- 
til the first resurrection, which will take place at the usher- 
ing in of the millennial reign, yet after the reunion of our 
souls and bodies it will be necessary for us to spend a thou- 
sand years in the vestibule or holy place preparatory to en- 
tering the Holy of holies — the very Presence Chamber of the 
God, and Father of the universe, where we are to spend an 
endless eternity, at his right-hand in the Heaven of heavens. 

Character is absolutely essential to station in life. Xo 
one can fill successfully the station he occupies unless his 
character be in harmony with the service he is called upon 
to render, the work it becomes necessary for him to per- 
form. One must be in sympathy, as well as in harmony, with 
his surroundings to be truly successful. Hence, to fill suc- 
cessfully the high and holy stations to which the saints will 
be called in heaven, it will require the grandest possible char- 
acters. Mushroom characters will not stand the test. Waver- 
ing characters will not answer the purpose. Characters de- 
ficient at any point or in any particular will not meet the re- 
25 



386 NOT READY FOR HEAYEX. 

quirements for service around the eternal throne in heaven. 
Hence the absolute necessity of the experience and devel- 
opments of the millennial reign with Christ in order to our 
occupying the high and honorable positions or stations in 
the eternal kingdom after it shall have been turned over to 
the Father and translated to heaven. 

This reign then is designed to perfect the character of the 
saintSc Perfection as to heart condition or life state does 
not imply perfection as to Christian or human character. 
Adam, at his creation, was perfect in heart and pure in life, 
but he was absolutely without character until that charac- 
ter was developed through his life actions. So the Christian 
character is not a thing to be received in connection with 
either spiritual birth or spiritual baptism, with the restora- 
tion of either spiritual life or the divine likeness to the soul, 
but something to be developed through the life actions of a 
soul already relifed and relikenessed by the Holy Spirit. 

Adam and Eve were not ready for heaven at their crea- 
tion. He was first expected to develop a representative 
character for himself and his race. That done, he and his 
posterity in due time, no doubt, would have been translated 
to heaven. Neither are we ready for heaven at our restora- 
tion through Christ to all that we lost in Adam. We are 
then expected to develop through our life actions our own 
personal characters. And we must develop the most per- 
fectly symmetrical characters here on earth, if we would be 
in perfect accord and holy harmony with all our social sur- 
roundings and varied environments when we get to heaven. 
The sinner would not feel at all at home in heaven. Nei- 
ther could a saint with an imperfect or deficient character be 



SUPREMACY OF THE KING OF KINGS. 387 

ill the sweetest and most blissful accord with the highest 
stations and superlative glories of heaven. We want char- 
acters that will stand the tests of time and loom up in mag- 
nificent grandeur before the felicities of the eternal world; 
and it will take a thousand years to develop such characters, 
and we will have no time to waste through all the fleeting 
years of those flying centuries. 

This millennial reign will be well calculated to show the 
supremacy of the King of kings over the prince of this 
world and all his combined allies, whether they be of Church 
or of State. "We cannot easily overestimate the power of 
Satan over the hearts and lives of his followers, or even over 
the followers of Christ, in this world. And we should not 
underestimate it, for it is enormous and deadly in its influ- 
ence. But with all his potency and wisdom it is more than 
gratifying to the saints to know that he will be overpowered 
and imprisoned in the bottomless pit during this reign of a 
thousand years. It will also be a matter of special congrat- 
ulation to know that his allies, both in and out of the 
church, have been shorn of their prestige and left powerless 
before the King and his saints to have meted out to them the 
just recompense of their wicked w T ays. The supremacy of 
the King and his saints over the world may be preached in 
every cit} r , village, town, and hamlet the world over, but 
that supremacy will never be recognized by the world until 
Satan sinks back, bound in chains, into the bottomless pit of 
hell, and Christ mounts the throne of universal empire and 
destroys those who will not yield to the sway of his match- 
less scepter, whether they be kings upon their royal thrones 
or peasants in their humble homes. 



388 WHAT OUR RACE WOULD HAVE BEEN. 

This millennial reign of Christ will also show the universe 
what our race would have been during the flight of centu- 
ries but for the fall of Adam and the consequent introduc- 
tion of sin into the world. It will result in the restoration 
of a part of the race to its pristine purity, creative wisdom, 
and unquestionable obedience to the Divine Will. And free 
from the temptations of Satan the progress of the ages in all 
the arts, sciences, and religion which pertains to the highest 
types of the moral and spiritual manhood and womanhood will 
be marvelous ; yes, grand and glorious indeed ! A world-wide 
empire in the absence of sin without the violation of a single 
law through the sweep of centuries, with justice and equity 
administered to one and all from the greatest to the least 
without any partiality or favoritism in all its departments 
and subdepartments, is but a faint pen picture of the blessed- 
ness of this sabbatical reign of a thousand years. Add to 
this the absence of sickness, suffering, pestilence, famine, 
war, or death in any form, and the picture begins to glow 
with some of the realities of the millennial reign. Add agnin 
perfect health, the deepest devotion, the ecstatic joys, the 
resounding praises, and the endless glories of all his subjects 
to the picture, and you have at least a faint idea of what this 
world would have been but for the fall of Adam and the con- 
sequent ravages of sin and Satan among the children of 
men. 

But the millennial reign of Christ is doubtless designed to 
increase very greatly the number of the saved. The world 
will move on, no doubt, during the thousand years, something 
after the same manner it does now, in many respects. Mi- 
cah says of this reign: It shall come to pass, in the latter 



THE PEOPLE SHALL BE RIGHTEOUS. 389 

days, that the Lord's house shall be established in Mt. Zion: 
and peoples shall flow into it: and many nations shall go, 
and be taught the ways of the Lord, and walk in his paths; 
for the Lord shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem: and he shall judge between many 
peoples; and reprove strong nations afar off. And they shall 
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into prun- 
ing hooks, for agricultural purposes, of course: so they shall 
lift up the sword no more against each other; and the art of 
war shall be forgotten among the nations. Every man shall 
sit under his own vine and fig tree; and we will walk in the 
name of the Lord our God forever. And he will make her 
that halted a remnant; and her that was cast far off a strong 
nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mt. Zion, 
from henceforth even forever. 

Again Isaiah says, in speaking of the glories and blessed- 
ness of this millennial reign, The people shall all be right- 
eous; and they shall inherit the land forever. And, refer- 
ring to the rapid increase among the people at this time, he 
adds : The little one shall become a thousand; and the small one 
a strong nation. Here we learn that the people will still en- 
gage in agricultural pursuits, and that the nations will in- 
crease very rapidly under this reign, free from the ravages 
of sin and death. Xot only will the increase be rapid, as 
compared with the present, but the people will unanimously 
give their hearts and consecrate their lives unreservedly to 
God, even in the days of their youth. Then the Crucified 
One will see the result of the travail of his soul and shall be 
satisfied with the vast millions that sweep into the spiritual 
kingdom of the Father, through the visible reign of his Son, 



390 A CHANCE TO GLORIFY CHRIST. 

to swell the multitudes of the blood-washed throng around 
the eternal throne forever and forever. 

This reign will give all Christians an opportunity to lay 
up additional treasures in heaven, where moth doth not cor- 
rupt nor thieves break through and steal. When we think 
how little many of us are laying up, as the golden opportu- 
nities of this life are gliding past on the tireless wings of 
time, it is pleasant to think of the bare possibility of having 
such opportunities after the resurrection of the just to lay 
up precious treasures for the eternal world. But this thought 
is too speculative to allow of our dwelling upon it at any 
greater length. 

This reign will give the saints a chance to glorify Christ 
as he ought to be glorified by his people. In fact, Paul pre- 
sents this as one object of Christ's second coming. He says: 
When he shall come, to be glorified in his saints, and to be 
marveled at in all them that believe ... in that day. We 
glorify Christ when we exalt him in the estimation of others 
through our lives of devotion, or our voices of thanksgivings 
and praise to his high and holy name. And the circum- 
stances will be so much more favorable to the spirit of exal- 
tation when we can see him with our own eyes and know 
that he now reigns as our King and our God. Then the 
multitudes, with full hearts, can join in the halleluiah cho- 
rus, The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let all the earth 
be glad, and let us rejoice for evermore; and let us glorify 
the Lord our God through all generations, even to the end 
of the world. 

The Revelator says of those who shall have gotten the 
victory over the beast and his image that they shall sing the 



THE FINAL BATTLE. 391 

song of Moses and the Lamb at that time, saying, Great and 
marvelous are thy works; . . . righteous and true are 
thy ways, thou King of saints; who shall not fear thee, O 
Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art hoi}' : for all 
the nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy 
righteous acts have been made manifest in all the earth. 
The Final Battle. 
But as this millennial reign is to open with a great battle, 
so it will close possibly with a still greater one. For when 
the thousand years are finished Satan shall be loosed for a 
little season out of his prison. And he shall come forth to 
deceive the nations, which are in the four corners of the earth, 
namely Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, 
the number of whom will be as the sand of the sea for mul- 
titudes. And these will come over the breadth of the earth; 
and compass the camps of the saints about, and the beloved 
city. And now will come the final conflict between the 
powers of hell and heaven, over the inhabitants of earth. 
Three worlds are all interested in the pending crisis. Two 
powerful armies are arrayed against each other, with the 
prospects of great slaughter on either side. But before a 
gun is fired, or a missile hurled by man, the lightning flashes 
of Divine Wrath are seen playing upon the brow of the gath- 
ering storm; the thunderbolts of God's vengeance are heard; 
fire begins to rain down out of heaven, and the enemies of 
the King all perish; but not a single saint is missing, dead, 
or wounded. Then the devil will be cast into the lake of 
fire and brimstone, prepared for him and his evil spirits, 
where also will be the beast and the false prophet, to be tor- 
mented day and night forever and ever. 



392 before the judgment throne. 

The Judgment. 

Then will follow 7 the general judgment. For, in this con- 
nection, the Revelator says: I saw a great white throne, and 
him who sat upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven 
fled away; and there was found no place for them. If you 
walk out on a beautful starlight night just as the rays of 
golden sunlight begin to streak the eastern horizon and 
play upon the brow of the morning, you will find the firma- 
ment studded with radiant stars. But only wait and watch 
for a few fleeting moments, and one by one they will begin 
to pale and pass away, until soon in your vision there will 
be found no place for them. Finally they will all have been 
swallowed up in the greater light of the rising king of day. 
So on this occasion the sun, moon, planets, and stars will all 
be lost to our vision in the greater light of him who sitteth 
in the effulgent brightness of his Divine glory on the great 
white throne; and there will be found no place for them. 
They will all in this sense have passed away. 

The dead, both great and small, will stand before the 
judgment throne of God; the books will be opened — the 
book of God's providences, and the book of his accounts 
against the children of men; and another book will be 
opened, which is the book of life, and all will be judged out 
of the things wilich are written in the books, according to 
their works. At that time the sea will give up its dead; 
and death and hell will deliver up their dead. Death will 
deliver up the bodies, and hell, or hades, the souls of the 
wicked dead, who will have had no part in the first resur- 
rection; and they will be judged, every man according to 
his works. And those from death and hades will be cast 



THE GLORIFIED KINGDOM. 393 

into the lake of fire and brimstone with all others whose 
names are not found written the Lamb's book of eternal 
life; and this will be the second death. For after the right- 
eous and the wicked have been separated, even as a shep- 
herd divideth the sheep from the goats, then will the Just 
Judge say to those upon his left-hand: Depart from me, ye 
accursed, into everlasting punishment; and to those upon 
his right-hand he will say : Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world. And these shall go away into everlasting 
punishment; but the righteous into life eternal. 

The Glorified Kingdom. 

Then cometh the end, when the Son shall have delivered 
up his glorified kingdom to God the Father, having reigned 
until he shall have put all enemies under his feet; and hav- 
ing abolished death, he himself will become subject to the 
Father, that God may be all and in all. Then the everlasting 
kingdom of David, and of David's Greater Son, will be liter- 
ally transferred to heaven, where it will exist eternally as 
the glorified kingdom of God the Father. 

The transfer of this glorified kingdom from earth to heav- 
en will be one of the grandest achievements — possibly the 
most memorable event — ever chronicled in the archives of 
human history. AVe almost see the mighty Conquering 
King as he sweeps in triumph with his blood- washed saints 
over the fields of light and across the plains of glory, to- 
ward the Heavenly Jerusalem. We can almost hear the 
voices of saints and angels as the white-robed throng near 
the portals of eternal glory, saying, in triumph, Lift up your 



394 THE GATES OF PEARL FLY OPEN. 

heads, ye gates of pearl : and let the King of Glory in : and 
then the inquiry, Who is this King of Glory? and then the 
answer, The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in 
battle, he is the King of Glory. Then the grand chorus 
fills the heavens again: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even 
lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory 
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of 
hosts, the King of Saints, he is the King of Glory. 

Then we can almost see the gates of pearl fly open; and 
the Conquering King, with his victorious army, sweep in in 
triumph, while the inquiry passes round, Who are these? 
and the answer is given back, These are they who came up 
through many tribulations, have washed their robes and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So up the gold- 
en streets they sweep, and around the great white throne 
they vie, while the Eternal City rings with her loud hosan- 
nas and sweet halleluiahs of welcome to the Conquering 
King and his triumphant legions, battle-scarred and victory- 
crowned, from the battlefields of earth to the Camping 
Grounds in glory. 




CIIAPTEK XX. 

THE HOLY BIBLE. 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ( Ps. cxix. 105. ) 

HE word Bible means book. It is a significant 
word. There is no other word like it. The 
Holy Bible is preeminently the Book of books, 
the greatest and grandest of all books. It is 
the King of books, reigning without a rival on the earth. 
Its regal power is felt and feared far and wide. Its Divine 
Oracles are being carried by faithful embassadors into all 
the nations of the Orient. Even its enemies are forced to 
acknowledge its matchless power in the world. It is rap- 
idly adding kingdom after kingdom to its ever-growing em- 
pire. Its dominion is destined to be universal and its reign 
eternal. 

The Bible is a rich and rare Old Book. It is the great 
Statute Book of God's everlasting kingdom. It is a mine 
of richest ore, a treasure house of Divine truth. It is a 
casket filled with the rarest jewels, sparkling and brilliant 
from the Courts of Heaven. It is a volume of facts, not 
fiction — the embodiment of the most sublime truths, and 
not of cunningly devised fables. It is a full fountain of 
Divine "Wisdom, overflowing with good will and precious 
promises to the children of men. 

There are sixty-six books in the Bible, thirty-nine in the 

Old and twenty-seven in the Xew Testament. This does 

(305) 



396 THE MOST PRACTICAL OF ALL BOOKS. 

not include the apocryphal writings often found in our Eng- 
lish Bibles. These, like the apocryphal writings of the 
New Testament times, do not properly belong to the Sa- 
cred Canon, though each contains many important truths in 
perfect harmony with the utterances of the Inspired Word. 

The Holy Bible is the newest and oldest of all books. It 
surveys the whole field of time, and looks forth into the in- 
finite realms of eternity. It throws the most charming in- 
terests over the events of the past, keeps us in active sym- 
pathy with the scenes of the present, and furnishes us our 
only reliable knowledge of the future. It is conservative 
enough to revere the past, and progressive enough to be in 
advance of the most enlightened of all ages. 

The Bible is the most practical of all books. It describes 
all conditions of human life, and gives expression to all the 
emotions and desires of the human soul. It sings a song of 
triumph for the victor, and utters a wail of defeat for the 
vanquished. It rejoices in the prospects and promises of 
the young, celebrates the strength and glory of manhood, 
and laments the infirmities and afflictions of the aged. It 
honors the great deeds of kings and conquerors, enters into 
deepest sympathy with the poor and unfortunate, lifts up 
the fallen, delivers the oppressed, and pours a benediction 
of blessings upon the humble homes of the common people. 
It points out clearly the seductions of temptation, the con- 
flicts of doubt, and the disasters of skepticism. It searches 
the deepest chambers of the heart and brings to light its 
purest love and darkest hate, its highest joy and deepest 
grief. It compasses the utmost range of thought, emotion, 
and desire; sounds the utmost depth of motive, passion, and 



THE MOST PRECIOUS OF ALL BOOKS. 397 

character; and sets forth the most spiritual and heavenly 
truths in the lights and shadows of earthly scenes and hu- 
man lives. 

The Bible is the plainest of all books. So plain in the es- 
sentials to salvation that the foolish wayfaring man, though 
running after worldly interests, need not read it wrongly. 
Yet it has a depth of wisdom that no created mind can fath- 
om. It is a beacon light, showing all wanderers the right 
way. Yet its light shines forth upon thickest clouds of 
mystery, even from abysses of infinite darkness. It is the 
pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to those 
who walk in its light. 

The Bible is the most precious of all books. In it every 
man can find a response to the yearnings of his own spirit, 
a chord of sympathy vibrating in unison with the deepest 
and loftiest experience of his own heart. It brings rest and 
strength to the saved soul amid the sorest trials and con- 
flicts of life. It is the only book that teaches us so to live 
that we may always find ourselves in harmony with the Di- 
vine Will that governs the universe, and seek our happiness 
from the sources that will never fail. It teaches us our re- 
lations both to God and man. Reason may throw some 
light upon the future life, but it is left for Revelation to 
point out the way of life and salvation more perfectly — to 
bring life and immortality fully to light through the gospel 
of Christ. 

The Bible is rich in historical truth. It announces the 
birth of creation. It gives us the origin of our race. It 
points out the fall and redemption of man. It records the 
biographies of men and the histories of nations. It points 



398 THE BIBLE A NECESSITY. 

faithfully to the faults as well as the fidelity of its heroes 
and heroines. It is made up largely of plain narratives and 
simple stories, and not, as some suppose, of painted allego- 
ries and galvanized hyperboles. It has left its footprints 
upon the historic wrecks and ruins of time. And many of 
its most valuable lessons are seen and read in the lives and 
characters of the grand men and women who sit upon its sa- 
cred biographical pages. 

The Bible was a necessity. Man's physical, moral, and 
spiritual interests all demanded the Written Word. A Su- 
pernatural Revelation w T as absolutely essential to our pres- 
ent and eternal w^ell-being. The revelations of nature w T ere not 
adequate to show us the depths of our degradation, and point 
us successfully to the only Remedy for Sin. Revealed truth 
alone lies, with its full force of obligation, upon the conscien- 
ces of men. Hence it has the most powerful influence over 
the heart and life as a means of moral and spiritual culture. 
The sincere soul thirsts for just such truths as God has giv- 
en in his Blessed Word. The Bible rests upon the basis of 
a spiritual necessity. Its revelations were essential, both to 
the moral culture and spiritual development of mankind. 
God evidently made many revelations to man prior to the 
Written Word, some of which were transmitted by tradi- 
tion from generation to generation through the long ages of 
the world's unwritten history; but the light of a Written 
Revelation had to be added to those of nature and tradition 
before man could read aright the riddle of the ages, his true 
relation to his fellows and his God. 

The Bible is in perfect accord with all natural truth. 
There are many striking analogies between the natural and 



A SCIENTIFIC BOOK. 399 

spiritual worlds. Great spiritual truths are often found 
mirrored in the smiling face of nature. The phenomena of 
the natural and spiritual kingdoms are often parallel; and 
the laws producing them evidently lie along the same lines, 
if they be not one and the same laws. In fact, the natural 
and spiritual worlds constitute a grand symmetrical unity, 
as united by their Common Author. However, the spiritual 
universe preceded the physical, the universe existed be- 
fore the sun, the invisible antedates the visible, the ma- 
terial is but the ladder upon which we may climb up to the 
immaterial, the temporal lies in the pathway leading to 
the eternal. 

The Bible is a scientific book. There is no conflict be- 
tween the natural and revealed truths of God. True science 
is but the echo of the voice of Divine Revelation. From the 
lips of each Ave get truth just as it came from God. Mature 
and Revelation are both books from the same Divine Author. 
They are counterparts each to the other. There can be 
nothing but harmony between all the truths they utter. 
They necessarily bear testimony to the same facts, and out 
of the mouth of these two witnesses everv scientific truth 
is established. 

Science and Revelation are handmaids, each contributing 
in its turn to the better understanding of the other, as they 
march on in the progress of their development to a more 
perfect comprehension of their mysterious phenomena by 
finite beings. Scientific investigations have already thrown 
a world of light on the sacred pages of the Holy Bible, and 
Revelation has corrected many errors and led to many dis- 
coveries in the scientific world; and if there be any future 



400 A MYSTERIOUS BOOK. 

developments of Bible doctrines aside from the fulfillment 
of prophecy, we must draw upon the farther discoveries of 
the seen to make more comprehensive the revelations of the 
unseen. The Holy Bible holds the key to much that is still 
dark and mysterious in the realms of nature. It is the key 
that unlocks the mysteries of the physical world, the true 
interpreter of natural phenomena, the perfection of all true 
philosophy, and the only safe guide in all scientific investi- 
gations. 

The Bible is the most reliable of ail books. In all the wide 
ranofe of scientific lore there can be found no oracles com- 
parable to those of Revelation. The truths of the Bible 
w^ere all recorded by the unerring pen of inspiration; while 
many of the statements and conclusions of science are but 
the guess-work of fallible men, whose learned follies will be 
opposed, as those of others have been, by the increasing 
light of future ages. Then this Divine Revelation, hoary 
with the weight of centuries, is entitled to infinitely more cre- 
dence than any baby science sitting in its swaddling clothes, 
or taking its first steps toward perfection. The truths of 
the Divine "Word are many-sided, and fit and conform to all 
the important facts brought to light in the natural world, 
leading to the inevitable conclusion that there is perfect har- 
mony between all true science and Divine Revelation. 

The Bible is a mysterious book, but its mysteries impart 
a peculiar charm to the spiritual sphere in which we move. 
Remove the mysteries, and all would be clear; but nothing 
half so grand and glorious. The story would soon lose 
its charms. The scene would soon become a monoto- 
nous one — lights without their corresponding shadows — 



PREEMINENTLY A SPIRITUAL BOOK. -±01 

with no place for the soul to revel or the saint to rest in 
the study of the Divine Word. It is well, even wise, that 
the light of Sacred Lore is partially veiled in its sublime 
metaphors and subtle mysteries from the first glance of the 
spiritual eye. The unequaled brightness of this spiritual lu- 
minary would blind the eye unaccustomed to its dazzling 
splendors and effulgent glories. No soul is sufficient to re- 
ceive all the brilliancy of the Lamp of Life at one look. Hence 
to all Unite minds there is a zone of darkness surrounding 
the spiritual as well as the natural world. Many of the Di- 
vine Oracles may be comprehended only as the human spirit 
is aided in its investigations by the Divine. 

The Bible is preeminently a spiritual book. It is the pro- 
duction of the Divine Spirit. Holy men of God penned its 
pages only as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The 
same Spirit that spake through Patriarchs and Prophets also 
spake through Christ and his Apostles, who summed up and 
set in its simplest form the finished Revelation of the Divine 
Will. 

The spiritual truths of Revelation often underlie the nat- 
ural, and hence are not seen by the carnal eye of the casual 
observer. In fact,, spiritual truths usually lie deeper than 
the surface, and consequently it requires spiritual vision 
properly to discern and spiritual understanding fully to com- 
prehend them. The chief value of Divine Revelation is 
found in the fact that it looks directly to the spiritual and 
eternal interests of those to whom it was given. 

The Bible is both human and Divine. The individuality of 
each of its authors is clearly seen in their respective writ- 
ings. Each one of its books bears the imprint of the age in 
26 



402 OUR ONLY INFALLIBLE GUIDE. 

which it was written; and yet, as a whole, it carries the vis- 
ible marks of Deity on its every page. It is purely human, 
but at at the same time perfectly Divine. It is human to 
reach down to our deepest desires; it is Divine to lift us up 
and link us on to God again. It speaks for man with plain- 
ness and fidelity in giving the story of his sin and the folly 
of his efforts to save himself. It speaks for God with elo- 
quence and power in revealing the fullness of his infinite 
love for a lost and ruined world. The spirit of love runs en- 
tirely through this Sacred Volume. It is a large and loving 
letter from our Heavenly Father, claiming human love in re- 
turn for the Divine. The sum of all its commandments is 
supreme love to God and unfeigned love for our fellow-men. 

The Bible is our only infallible guide. The opinions of 
the best-informed men are not reliable in matters of faith and 
morals. Human reason is a poor regulator for human con- 
duct. A life dependent upon anything short of Divine 
Revelation must of necessity run at loose ends and ultimate- 
ly miss its intended goal. The Bible addresses man as a be- 
ing capable of knowing, loving, and obeying God. It re- 
quires him to acquaint himself with and learn to love God 
and keep his commandments. It tells him that good is in- 
separably and eternally connected with obedience; and evil, 
with disobedience. It blazes out the way clearly from ev- 
ery earthly point to the Royal Road leading through grace 
to glory and to God. 

The Bible is a Divine Revelation that needs no comple- 
ment from human hands. It will do its own shining, if we 
will only hold it up and look at it in its own light. It is the 
lamp to light our pathway. We simply want to get our sci- 



WITHOUT NOTE OR COMMENT. 403 

entific, philosophic, theoretical, and theological views out of 
the w T ay of the Word of God and read it without an effort to 
make it harmonize with the faith or confessions of men. It 
is a vault filled with the richest treasures of eternal truth. 
Would you unlock it and have constant access to its pre- 
cious contents? Then use the Biblical key. Let the Bible 
be its own interpreter, and it will never cease to reveal to you 
things both old and new. You will find it a sort of kalei- 
doscope. Every time you turn it round under its own sacred 
light you will get another view of the Divine dealings with 
the children of men. 

We cannot afford to read the Bible as we would a riddle 
or a romance. We must accept it as a plain, straightfor- 
ward, common sense Revelation from God, saying just what 
it means, and meaning exactly what it says. Scripture 
should always be given a literal interpretation, unless the 
context or some other passage shows it to be figurative. It 
should never be read in the light of a church creed, but 
searched in the light of its own revealed truths by the aid of 
its own Enlightening Spirit. He who focalizes the light of 
Revelation upon topic after topic in the study of the Bible 
will find new beauties constantly bursting in upon his spir- 
itual vision as he advances in the investigation of its sub- 
lime subjects. 

The Bible without note or comment is the brightest sun 
beneath which the spiritual world has ever revolved. It 
is a common fountain of light and life for all men. It is 
Infinite Fullness itself. It is replete in knowledge, the very 
embodiment of Divine Wisdom. It points plainly to the path 
of duty and presents clearly the true motives to right living. 



404 THE CHRIST OF THE BIBLE. 

It abounds with the most solemn admonitions, groans under 
its terrible threatenings, and overflows with the most pre- 
cious promises ever left upon record for fallen humanity. 

The Holy Bible is composed of the Old and Xew Testa- 
ments. The first deals principally with time and timely 
things; the latter takes a broader sweep — a more comprehen- 
sive view. It looks less at things present, and more at 
things to come. The Old Testament is noted for its long 
lines of earthly vision; the 2few lifts the curtain and bids 
us look at things heavenly and Divine. But the Old and 
¥ew Testaments unite in making all nature a mirror reflect- 
ing the face, features, and affections of a Triune God. 

In our English versions of the Old and Xew Testaments 
we have not merely the substance, but also the forms and 
shadings of their truths just as they came from the original 
Organs of Revelation. In the former we can all but hear the 
stern voice of the Father, while in the latter we may almost 
catch the tender tone and accents of the Son. Both Testa- 
ments are full of Christ. Take Jesus out of the Bible, and 
its essence is gone. He is the secret of its strength and the 
cause of its conquests. His magic name runs, like a line of 
orient light, through all its sacred pages. He is the focal 
point in all its prophecies and promises. He makes the Xew 
Testament the completion and fulfillment of the Old. And 
there are millions to-day who hang their hopes for time and 
eternity upon the Christ of the Bible. 

The Bible is an inspired book. It is preeminently the 
Word of God. True, it is the direct product of more than 
forty different authors, running through sixteen centuries of 
time. Yet none but God could be the Eeal Author of this 



PRESERVATION OF ALL THE BOOKS. 405 

Wonderful Book. He only was contemporaneous with its 
several stages of production, and no other could have con- 
trolled and coordinated all the agents employed in its writ- 
ing, so as to give the world a Book harmonious in all its 
parts and perfect, as well as symmetrical, in its entirety. 

The entire Bible, every book, chapter, and verse, are in- 
spired. There were, however, different modes and degrees 
of inspiration employed in giving the Word to the world. 
There was inspiration with and without spiritual illumina- 
tion and Divine Revelation. Men spoke with and without 
comprehending the import of their own words. They spoke 
in unknown languages, both with and without the ability to 
interpret back into their own mother tongue. 

The perfect preservation of all the books of the Bible has 
no parallel in the history of the world, and furnishes no mean 
evidence of their inspiration. The preservation of the Bible 
has been wonderful indeed. Its most powerful enemies tried 
long and hard to destroy it from the face of the earth, but 
they tried in vain. It has been the object of the fiercest as- 
saults in every age of its existence, but still it stands as the 
Impregnable Word of God. Its translation into about two 
hundred languages, and its universal distribution over the 
habitable parts of the globe, are miracles equal to any re- 
corded on its sacred pages, and give additional evidence of 
its inspiration. 

The Sacred Scriptures surpass all other writings in the 
simplicity, sublimity, and grandeur of their style. They are 
the Inimitable. Their authors were evidently lifted into a 
higher, holier atmosphere by Divine Inspiration. Their sa- 
cred lore has done infinitely more to enlighten and elevate 



406 INFIDELITY A HUGE NEGATION. 

humanity than the writings of earth's wisest and best phi- 
losophers and sages. These revealed truths have been so 
many lights shining upon the darkness of heathen philoso- 
phy and jurisprudence for many ages past. They have fre- 
quently led to the conversion of pagans, infidels, and athe- 
ists. They have ever comforted the lowly, instructed the 
wise, and moved the world heavenward. The effects of Bi- 
ble truths have always borne evidence to the fact that they 
are of Divine origin. Amid all the shifting things of time 
and sense there is one thing that remains sure and steadfast: 
it is the Word of the Lord. 

The Bible is a forgery, says infidelity; Christianity, a fail- 
ure; hell, a fable; and heaven itself, a mere fascination to lure 
us away from the pleasures of this world. Infidel sages teach 
us that our earth life is the through line, and natural death its 
hopeless terminus. They fail to recognize any higher pow- 
er than reason, and hence seek no higher attainment than edu- 
cation. They lose sight of the fact that worldly wisdom has 
no power to bind the conscience. A recognition of Revealed 
Truth is absolutely essential to its activity in enforcing upon 
us all the obligations of even a moral life. Infidelity is a 
want of thought. It is a display of ignorance. It is the 
embodiment of egotism. Man's highest power is the spirit- 
ual, and his grandest attainment is in the religious life. And 
for all he is indebted to the Holy Bible. 

Infidelity is simply a huge negation. It offers no substi- 
tute for the Sacred Word. It leaves humanity helpless and 
hopeless. For our sorrow it has no solace. Upon our dark- 
ness it sheds no light. From our sins it offers no salvation. 
Its loftiest sentiments are borrowed from the Book it seeks 



HOLY BIBLE, HEAVENLY GUIDE. 407 

to destroy. The liberty it champions has cost it but little 
sacrifice and less blood. The sweet charities it eulogizes so 
highly have all been established by believers in the Bible. 
It comes with no benefaction, and leaves no benediction but 
its baneful shadow when it has taken its departure. It is 
the evangel of destruction, seeking to write on all human 
hopes and aspirations the anguish of endless despair. But 
God has utilized infidelity itself in driving the church from 
untenable grounds to the bed rocks of Bible truth, from which 
there is no dislodgment. 

Holy Bible, Heavenly Guide, 
Linger ever near my side; 
My heart and hopes shall e'er be stayed 
On revelations thou hast made. 

Book of all books, truly Divine, 
Thy precious promises are mine; 
Mine to lift my soul in love, 
To him who reigns in light above. 

Angel of the Apocalypse, 
Place the sun in strange eclipse, 
As through the heavens, like a dove, 
You bear the message of Christ's love. 

Sacred Word, Infallible Truth, 
Guide me through the years of youth; 
And when the days of life are o'er, 
Land me on the shining shore. 

And when I walk the gold-paved streets, 
The loved and lost of earth to greet, 
I'll bless the day when first I pressed, 
The Bible to my trusting breast. 

And as I vie around God's throne, 
Or pass from world to world nnknown, 
I'll never cease to praise the Lord 
For the revelations of his Word. 




CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE HELL OF THE BIBLE. 

In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. (Luke xvi. 23.) 

ELL is a fearful reality. It is a literal world. 
God made and prepared it for the devil and his 
angels. In it there is a lake of fire and brim- 
stone. This is to be the eternal abode of the 
devil, his demons, and all the doomed of earth. So harshly 
does the thought of eternal torment fall upon the human 
heart that all the ingenuity of man has been employed to 
explain away, if possible, the plain and positive declara- 
tions of the Bible on this disagreeable subject. 

All the names by which hell is designated in the Word of 
God prove it to be a real place, and not a mere state or con- 
dition of the lost soul. And the Scriptures invariably point 
to it as a place of awful and eternal punishment. But, if 
the language of Divine Inspiration describing the future 
punishment of the finally impenitent be figurative, nothing 
is gained for the lost. God could not intentionally deceive 
his creatures. The figure used by him cannot transcend the 
reality — the thing that represents cannot go beyond the 
thing represented. Hence hell is just what the Bible says 
it is, or else the future of the finally impenitent has never 
been faithfully pictured. 

Hell is no part of God's original universe. It is a dark, 

dismal sphere, isolated from all other worlds, rolling in law- 

(408) 



HORRIBLE BEYOND DESCRIPTION. 409 

lessness beyond the confines of creation, without sun, moon, 
or star to penetrate its dense darkness or chase away its mid- 
night blackness. It is a barren, gloomy, desolate world, 
w T ith rivers of burning liquid emptying into a vast lake of 
fire and brimstone, where all is disorder, hatred, enmity, and 
revenge. It is located without the circle of order and light, 
in outer darkness, shrowded in night's sable curtains, and 
mantled with her blackest pall. Its fires are ever burning 
upon the black altars of an endless night, where no sun ever 
shed a single ray of light. 

The Hell of the Bible is horrible beyond description. It 
is a lake of burning, boiling, bubbling brimstone, environed 
with a 'dense darkness, rising in black embankments, instinct 
with Divine wrath. As far as the eye can see it is fire,/zre, 
eire. Huge billows of fire rise up, and roll on in rapid suc- 
cession, while great waves of fiery flames dash against each 
other and leap high in the air, like the angry waves of the 
sea during a violent storm. On the crest of these mighty 
waves the inhabitants of hell rise for a moment, to sink 
down again to the lowest depths of this literal lake of fire 
and brimstone. While borne on the crest of these awful 
billows the vast region of fire echoes and reechoes to the 
wails of lost spirits — millions of voices sending up their 
heartrending but fruitless cries for water, water, water. 

The Hell of the Bible is the only suitable abode for the 
demons of darkness. No other place would be adapted to 
their fallen, fiendish natures. It is just so with the w T icked 
of this world. Xo place save that intended for the devil 
and his angels would be at all congenial to the depraved na- 
tures of those who, of their own accord, choose hell as their 



410 HELL IS A PRISON. 

eternal portion. This hell, located in the outer parts of the 
Divine dominions, is infinitely preferable to that universal 
disorder that sinners would naturally create eternally if al- 
lowed to remain among the obedient subjects of the Divine 
government. God has reserved the right to punish criminals 
who will not accept pardon through Christ, according to the 
demerits of their crimes and in keeping with their just deserts. 
The degrees of future punishment will be proportionate to the 
guilt of the criminal. And yet all the lost will go to the 
same hell. The difference will not be so much in place as 
in capacity to drink in the endless wrath of Almighty God. 

Hell is no little place. It has enlarged itself. It has 
opened its mouth without measure. The multitudes of the 
earth by the millions have already descended into it, but it 
is never full. Misery loves company, and still it cries, More! 
more! moke! 

Hell is a prison, where the lost will be incarcerated and 
punished forever. Earthly prisons are places of great suf- 
fering, and sometimes fearful torture, as imprisoned soldiers 
can readily testify. But these light afflictions are not com- 
parable to the undying agonies of an endless hell, where the 
imprisoned will be bound in hopeless and eternal fetters. 
O, the fearful thought of endless imprisonment in a devil ? s 
hell, with all its eternal tortures, burning shame, and endless 
disgrace! And still sinners by the millions are being led 
captive by the devil at his own will, through the massive 
gateway of death, to be turned into hell with all the nations 
that forget God. 

Hell is a bottomless pit. A Star fell from heaven to earth. 
To him was given the key to this horrible pit. He opened 



WHY DOES SIN EXIST? 411 

it, and the smoke, as of a great furnace, rose out of it, dark- 
ening the very sun with the blackness of its crime in the cru- 
cifixion of Christ. And the king of this bottomless pit, the 
instigator of this crime of crimes, upon which the sun refused 
to shine, was Abaddon, Apollyon, the devil. There are sin- 
ners who would not be shut up in a dark pit with a devil 
during one night for all the gold of Ophir and California 
combined, though they knew he was securely chained and 
could not hurt them. And yet, wandering stars, to whom is 
reserved the blackness of darkness forever, they are going- 
down with all the rapidity of time to make this bottomless 
pit, swarming with legions of devils, their everlasting habi- 
tations. 

But let us be logical for a while. Why does sin exist, 
making hell a necessity? Because the Divine law was trans- 
gressed by free moral agents, not by the Divine permission; 
but in direct opposition to the Divine commands. Virtue 
was an impossibility in moral agents without the possibility 
of vice. Obedience presupposed the alternative of disobe- 
dience. Holiness would have been destitute of merit had 
there been no chance for demerit through sin. This secret 
solves successfully the dark enigma of the existence of evil in 
the moral universe. God could not people the universe with 
free agents, and then force them to perfect obedience to the 
Divine commands. He necessarily left them at liberty to 
choose obedience and life, or disobedience and death. It is 
God's prerogative, however, to reward the obedient and pun- 
ish the disobedient as justice and equity may demand. 

The idea of a place of future punishment for the wicked, 
like that of a place of rewards for the righteous, is not con- 



412 FUTUKE PUNISHMENT. 

fined to believers in the Bible. It is well-nigh universal. 
Even those who would not believe fear most the existence of 
a hell of some kind. Some say endless punishment is un- 
reasonable, a mere assertion that cannot be proven. The 
same objection has been offered to every leading doctrine of 
the Bible. The logical 'outcome of such an argument is athe- 
ism. But there will be no skepticism, infidelity, or atheism 
in hell. Like the devils, they will all believe and tremble. 

But this future punishment does not consist, as some sup- 
pose, alone in the regrets for lost opportunities, the stings of 
conscience, and the pangs of endless remorse. Added to 
this inward torment — the undying worm — there will be the 
most fearful outward torture, the fire that is never quenched. 
The presence of sin is the only reason why men cannot sanc- 
tion the severest penalty affixed to the violation of the Di- 
vine law. God's high regard for his law determined his op- 
position to its transgression, and fixed the penalty of its 
transgressors. Nothing short of eternal punishment in a 
devil's hell could have made manifest the intense opposition 
of Deity to all crime and to all impenitent criminals. 

Man's obligations to God are infinite. Hence his guilt, 
as a sinner against God, is infinite. Therefore the penalty, 
in justice, must be infinite. But it can be infinite only in 
point of duration, and consequently it must be eternal. The 
Savior asserts the ceaseless suffering of all unsaved sinners 
over and over again in statements the most positive and lan- 
guage the most emphatic. When the Father speaks of the 
smoke of their torment ascending up from the lake of fire 
and brimstone forever and ever, it is not to misrepresent or 
unduly excite the sinner. He means exactly what he says. 



JUSTICE AND MERCY. 413 

And if he accommodates himself with a metaphor, the pic- 
ture is never overdrawn. The figure always falls below the 
fact. Hell is a place of the most intense and eternal torture. 

God's capacity for infinite love implies his capacity for 
infinite wrath. Divine wrath is but the burning reflex of 
Divine love, and every argument against a hell for the sub- 
jects of God's fiery wrath and righteous indignation is also 
an argument against a heaven for the objects of his match- 
less love and boundless mercy. To follow the sinner be- 
yond the boundary of his earthly probation with the prom- 
ises of mercy would be to offer a premium on sin in this 
life. Mercy is a lovely maid leaning upon the strong arm 
of Justice. Her form is faultless, her face the fairest, while 
fadeless beauty burns upon her noble brow and blushing 
cheeks. But, best of all, she is the open and avowed friend 
of sinning and suffering humanity. A glance from her eyes 
of celestial blue, or a touch from her fingers of lily white- 
ness, have often caused stern Justice with his dark brows 
and flashing eyes to relent and spare offending man. But 
there is a boundary line between God's mercy and his wrath, 
across which every finally impenitent sinner must pass be- 
fore he is doomed to eternal death. 

The atonement itself is an evidence of eternal punish- 
ment; for if the suffering of the sinner for a time could 
have compensated for his sins, Christ's atonement would 
have been a supererogation. We might farther justify eter- 
nal punishment on the ground that it is necessary to meet 
the exigencies and uphold the interests of God's eternal 
government. The highest interests of eternity throw all 
their weight in favor of endless punishment, just as the in- 



414 PUNISHMENT IS RETRIBUTIVE. 

terests of time demand temporary punishment for its trans- 
gressors. The Divine jurisprudence gives us penalties suit- 
able to accomplish the desired end : the prevention of sin. 
Hence eternal punishment seems meet to those whom noth- 
ing could reclaim. Such punishment was doubtless de- 
manded to stay the ravages of sin and preserve the glory of 
the Divine government. 

The object of eternal punishment is retributive. Retri- 
bution is the primary element in all just punishment. 
The prevention of crime and the reformation of criminals 
are but secondary or incidental considerations. Punish- 
ment as a reformatory or disciplinary measure is not in 
keeping with stern justice, and can only be admitted in a 
government of grace under a probationary state. Retribu- 
tion is not in opposition to God's goodness, grace, or mercy. 
It is simply an exhibition of Divine justice after grace has 
been spurned and mercy rejected, ^one who ultimately 
reject salvation under the covenant of Divine grace shall 
ever escape the righteous retributions of the eternal world. 

The destiny of the good and the bad alike is fixed and 
final at death. The saved will never be lost, and the lost 
will never be saved in the world to come. According to an 
essential correlation existing between the two, any argu- 
ment that would reward the righteous would punish the 
wicked in the future state. And the same facts which eter- 
nize the future rewards necessarily render future punish- 
ment eternal. Faith and endless obedience are the basis of 
eternal rewards, while unbelief and eternal disobedience are 
the basis of endless punishment. 

The far-off future has locked up in its heaving bosom an 



TIME MOVES US ON. 415 

eternal day and an endless night. This day and night 
symbolize heaven and hell. In heaven there is an eternal 
day. Xo eve shall drop the sable curtains of night over 
that lovely land of endless light. In hell it is one endless 
night — a starless, ray less night — the ebon night of eternal 
death, upon which no morn shall ever break. Day and 
night are emblematic of life and death. Light and dark- 
ness are antipodes. One is typical of justice and purity; the 
other, of cruelty and crime. Life is either a day of mingled 
sunshine and shadows or else it is a cloudy, dreary day of 
dark despair. Death is either a bright night with moon 
and stars shining brightly in the firmament of hope, or else 
it is a moonless, starless night, without a gleaming ray of 
hope on the horizon of its ever-deepening darkness. 

But let us look beyond death to the judgment. Time 
moves us on. The judgment day is coming. Soon the arch- 
angel will descend, and sound the trumpet summoning earth 
and hell to the judgment bar of God. He will appear like 
a blazing star in the firmament above. His beautiful form, 
burning out on the ethereal blue, will dazzle the eye and 
astonish the world. The sound of his mighty trump will 
shake the earth, awake the dead, and bring the wicked into 
judgment. The great white throne, parting the sky like a 
mighty scroll, will come rolling down on its wheels of fire 
over the pavements of light, flanked on either side by a ret- 
inue of angels, whose wings fan the distant horizons, and 
followed by legions of seraphim and cherubim, whose burn- 
ing glory fills the heavens. In midair it halts and hangs 
pivoted upon the Divine Will until the judgment is past, and 
men and devils know their eternal destinies. 



416 THE JUDGMENT DAY. 

There will be a general judgment. The day will dawn 
upon which Christ will judge the world in righteousness. 
The world has witnessed many judgments of a partial or in- 
definite character. And its leading judgments all point un- 
mistakably to the general judgment: they are all preludes 
to the world's most terrible crisis, the final Judgment Day. 
When Israel entered the Promised Land six tribes were 
stationed upon Mount Ebal and six upon Mount Gerizim. 
The Levites pronounced to them the curses and blessings of 
the Divine law, while the hosts upon the right and left re- 
sponded "Amen " to the word of the Lord. This grandest 
of ceremonies in all the history of the world is typical of the 
great Judgment Day, when the assembled millions of earth 
shall stand upon the right and left of the great white throne 
and say "Amen" to every sentence pronounced by the Just 
Judge of all the earth. 

The Judgment Day is not necessary to the apportionment 
of rewards, but it is essential that men and angels may see the 
reasons and indorse the decisions of Divine Justice in every 
case of condemnation or acquittal. This general judgment 
will call forth the sanction of the assembled universe; and, 
for the first time since the fall of angels, God will receive 
universal glory. 

We have all been tendered a day of trial, and beyond 
our day of probation there must of necessity be a sj^stem of 
rewards and punishments. The soul naturally anticipates a 
future judgment. Guilt necessarily looks for a Day of Ret- 
ribution. But sinners think of the judgment as a thing of 
the distant future. Hence carnal security often sleeps upon 
the flowery bed of ease on the very brink of endless woe. 



TOPHET SYMBOLIZES HELL. 417 

Fiery billows rush and roar beneath the slumbering dream- 
ers, until, all unconscious of their doom, they slide precipi- 
tately down the fearful precipice, to awake in the nether- 
most depths of a devil's hell. 

Sinners go on sinning until the habit formed is so firmly 
fixed that naught can check them in their mad career. The 
glories of heaven and the terrors of hell are alike insufficient 
inducements to turn them to Christ. They sin away their 
day of grace, doom themselves to an eternity of sinning, and 
God dooms them to an eternity of suffering. Eternity! O 
Eternity! who can contemplate it unmoved, in connection 
with the extreme tortures and endless agonies of hell. Eter- 
nity is the mother of the past, the parent of time, and the 
companion of endless duration. Eternity is a clock whose 
ever-vibrating pendulum swings to the birth and death 
of worlds as it comes and goes forever and for evermore. O 
Lord, deliver me and mine from the eternal tortures of the 
Hell of the Bible! 

Finally hell is represented in the Bible by Tophet, a fear- 
ful sink in a valley near Jerusalem, Tophet to the Jews 
most striking! } r symbolized hell. First, in view of the fact 
that it was a sink into which all the filth and corruption of 
the city and surrounding country was collected in one putre- 
fying mass of seething pollution. So hell is the great sink 
of endless perdition, into which all the filth and pollution of 
God's moral universe shall be gathered in one all-absorbing 
mass of putrefaction, the sickening stench of which will rise 
up with the smoke of their torment forever and ever. 

Tophet also symbolizes hell in view of the fact that it was 

the place where great sin was committed. It was here that 
27 



418 THE PALACES OF INO. 

the wicked Jews, apparently freed from all restraints, gave 
full vent to the inclinations of their wicked hearts in the 
worship of dumb idols. Here they cast their helpless babes 
into the brazen arms of Moloch, while they blew the trumpet, 
played their instruments, and shouted, to drown their infant 
cries. So hell is a place where the greatest sin is being con- 
stantly committed. All the restraining influences of this 
life are removed in hell, and all its inhabitants left perfectly 
free to follow the full inclinations of their wicked hearts 
through all eternity. 

Finally, Tophet symbolized hell in that it was a place of 
fearful punishment. Here God made the wicked Jews, the 
great army of Sennacherib, and others pay the penalties of 
violated laws, until it was truthfully called the valley of de- 
struction, the valley of dry bones. So hell is a place of the 
most fearful punishment, a place where men and devils will 
have to pay the penalties of the Divine laws which they vio- 
lated throughout an endless eternity. 

Over its fields roam the steeds of the wind, roll the chari- 
ots of the hurricane, and rumble the caravans of the sweep- 
ing tempest. In its aerial pavilions is the home of the 
lightning, the birth chambers of the storm king, the palaces 
of Ino, and the pleasure ground of her attendant nymphs. 




CHAPTEK XXII. 
THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

The heaven of heavens. (2 Chron. vi. 18.) 

HERE are three heavens: the first, second, and 
third heaven. The first heaven is the space oc- 
cupied by the air around and the sky and clouds 
above us. It embraces the atmospheric region 
that surrounds the earth. The beautiful birds, the majestic 
eagle, and the proud condor bathe their golden plumage in 
the deep ethereal blue of the first heaven. 

The second heaven is the region occupied by the sun, 
moon, planets, and stars. It embraces all space lying be- 
tween the first and third heavens. Through this heaven 
the beautiful stars move on in their silent but magnificent 
grandeur. The crescent moon — ever changing, but ever 
lovely queen of night — sails gently on through the azure 
blue of its mighty deep. The majestic sun, king of day, 
rides in the resplendent grandeur of his fiery chariot across 
the highways of the second heaven. 

The third heaven is the eternal dwelling place of God. It 
is the chief, or greatest, of all heavens — the highest heaven, 
the Heaven of heavens. And we never reach the Bible idea 
of this third heaven short of a real, glorious, and eternal 
world, where unalloyed happiness and unspeakable joy fill 
and thrill all hearts for evermore. 

The Heaven of the Bible is a grand and glorious reality. 

(419) 



420 HEAVEN A LOCAL PLACE. 

There is nothing more real or glorious in the all but bound- 
less material universe. It is not only real; it is also materi- 
al, and consequently local. It occupies space, is tangible, 
visible, and eternal. Heaven and heavenly things have 
form just as certainly as do the earth and earthly things. If 
the soul retains its senses, and the body* its organs, man 
must spend his future in a world where these senses can be 
gratified and these organs utilized. It is a reflection on 
Divine wisdom to suppose that God would take our reunited 
souls and bodies to any other than a material heaven, which 
would furnish every faculty of soul and body a perfect en- 
vironment through all eternity. Heaven, then, is not a 
vague, shadowy, empty space, but a real world, where every 
existing thing is as tangible and as essential to the happi- 
ness of its inhabitants as are the material things of this 
world to the well-being of its sojourners. 

Atheists regard such a heaven as an absurdity, the off- 
spring of a diseased imagination. Some professed Chris- 
tians prefer to call this heaven a mere state or condition of 
happiness; and this, they contend, is all the heaven we shall 
ever know. But the Bible speaks just as plainly and posi- 
tively of heaven as a local place, a material world, as it does 
of the earth's materiality and location; and, taking the 
Bible for our authority, we can doubt the one just as con- 
sistently as we can the other, for according to all just 
rules of interpretation the one is not less figurative than 
the other. Heaven, then, is a local material world without 
a parallel in the universe of God. 

God's universe is made up of worlds and systems of 
worlds. Each system has its sun or center of attraction, 



THIS WORLD NOT TO BE HEAVEN. 421 

around which all the other orbs revolve in perfect har- 
mony with the Divine will. But these central suns are not 
stationary. They too, with all their accompanying orbs, 
revolve around other grander centers, and these around 
others, until finally the great center of attractions is reached, 
that grand and glorious orb around which all the systems of 
creation move in perpetual revolutions. This grand and 
glorious central world is the Heaven of the Bible, the fit 
dwelling place of Jehovah, and the eternal home of his 
people. 

This heaven is the only place in the universe that can fully 
satisfy the longings of the immortal soul. Here its every 
wish is anticipated and its every want supplied. Here ec- 
static joys fill the soul to its utmost capacity. These joys 
will all be rational and unending. All the faculties of the 
soul find in heaven affinities and affections which give per- 
fect satisfaction. The associations of heaven are a source 
of infinite happiness. The society of saints and angels can- 
not but result in endless glory. 

This world is not heaven; it never will be, unless God 
converts his footstool into a throne. Heaven is composed 
of material much finer in quality, and covered with scenery 
far more beautiful and grand than that of earth. It has 
been inhabited by holy, happy beings for ages in the past. 
Different orders of angels lifted their hearts with their harps 
in praises to a Triune God long before the courts of glory 
ever resounded with the song of redeeming grace. Her in- 
habitants never die. They never grow old. They live on 
in immortal youth forever. Eternity's ages may roll away 
and her long cycles sweep on in infinite succession, but 



422 HEAVEN IS A REAL PLACE. 

they can never silver the locks nor bend the bodies of the 
happy inhabitants of heaven. Eternal youth awaits all 
God's children in the better world. 

Heaven is not the mere fancy of a fruitful imagination, 
but the ideal world of the universe. All interests seem to 
center there, as though it were the metropolis of God's vast 
empire of shining worlds. This heaven is the ultimatum, 
the finality, of every saved soul. In it we have a celestial 
empire — the King of Glory and the subjects of his grace — 
which converts the ideal into a real heaven. 

The Bible describes heaven by using some of the most 
beautiful and impressive images that nature could furnish. 
It speaks of it as a better country, flowing w T ith rivers of 
pleasure, shaded by trees of life, full of rapturous songs, and 
rich with robes and crowns, fenstings, joys, and eternal tri- 
umphs. It is a world of beauty, a garden of delight, an ocean 
of pleasure. It has a firmament as clear as crystal, over 
whose translucid brightness no cloud ever cast a dimming 
shadow. Reflecting the glory of God, it shines like a myr- 
iad of suns in one, pouring its floods of celestial light upon 
all beneath its glittering canopy. 

Solomon's temple was beautiful, grand, and magnificent. 
But this wonderful temple, with its imposing grandeur, was 
but a faint type of that temple made without hands, eternal 
in the Heaven of heavens. The earth is also beautiful, lovely, 
and good; but it is not comparable to that world whose beau- 
ties are fadeless and whose joys are unspeakable and full of 
glory. The eye hath not seen such beauties, the ear hath not 
heard such melodies, neither hath the heart conceived of such 
glories as shall greet us in the Heaven of heavens. 



HEAVEN IS A HOME. 423 

Heaven is a place of rest. Nothing is so sweet to the 
tired man as rest. Neither is there anything so desirable to 
the Christian burdened with the years and cares of life and 
ripe for the peace and joys of heaven as that eternal rest 
that remaineth to the people of (rod. 

Heaven is a home. Humble though it may be, there is no 
place like home. The word home is among the sweetest, 
the most significant, and the most sacred found in the Eng- 
lish language. We fondly cherish the sacred memories 
which cluster around the homes of our youth. No wonder, 
for associated with them are the most endearing relations 
and the most affectionate ties of earth. The word home 
sweeps the memory at once with the love and care of a kind 
father and the devotion and sympathies of an affectionate 
mother. It calls to mind the joys and sorrows shared with 
brothers and sisters in other days, and reminds us again of 
the many pleasant associations of friends and kindred, never 
to be forgotten in this life nor in the life to come. So J im- 
agine the word heaven, fragrant with blessings, is indebted 
for much of its sweetness and significance to the fact that it 
carries along with it the idea of an eternal home, a home 
where heart answers to heart in the sweetest responses of love, 
a home where the dearest and most sacred associations gath- 
er around an immortal life, running parallel with eternity. 

Heaven is a home where millions of happy children love 
the same kind Father, receive from his bountiful hand the 
same endless blessings, and share through all eternity the 
same rich and glorious inheritance. It is a blessed home 
where sickness never comes; a home where painful partings 
are known no more; a home where all the great family of 



424 A HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS. 

God will live on through the long cycles of eternity, in all 
the bloom and vigor of immortal youth. Christian friends, 
this home, so great, so beautiful, and so good, is to be our 
home. It is to be our eternal dwelling place. And I imag- 
ine there will be great joy, and millions of happy voices will 
unite in a mighty song of triumph that will roll in undying 
anthems around the Father's throne wdien all his children 
have firmly fixed their feet upon the fair banks of eternal 
deliverance — are safely landed at home at last. 

Heaven is a house of many mansions. It is a house with 
ample accommodations for all God's children. There are 
many mansions in our Father's magnificent house. This is 
literally true. It is a glorious reality. If it had been oth- 
erwise, Christ would not have concealed the fact from us; 
he would have told us the unvarnished truth. When we 
get to heaven we will find it just as the Savior said: a house 
of many mansions — a mansion for every child of God — a 
perfect and eternal home for every true believer in Christ. 
The Blessed Savior went back to heaven to prepare a place 
for us, and in the fullness of time he will come again and 
take us unto himself, that where he now is we may be eter- 
nally. These palatial mansions were built by the Architect 
of the universe. Their beautiful domes, frosted with glit- 
tering gems, will sparkle forever in the burning glories of 
heaven's eternal day. 

Heaven is a kingdom. It is a vast and glorious realm, 
where happy millions live in perfect obedience to him to 
whom allegiance is infinite delight. It is a kingdom of per- 
fect order, peace, and love; a kingdom of truth, knowledge, 
and righteousness, where countless millions live without sin 





THE NEW JERUSALEM. 



"And he carried me away in the spirit 
to a great and high mountain, and showed 
me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, 
descending out of heaven from God." 
(Rev. xxi. 10.) 



HEAVEN IS A BETTER COUNTRY. 427 

or death to mar their endless joys. It is a kingdom where 
the night of ignorance casts no withering shadow over happy 
homes. It is a kingdom whose subjects are robed in gar- 
ments of snowy white and bask eternally in the sunshine of 
the Divine presence. Thrice and forever happy are the sub- 
jects of such a glorious kingdom. 

Heaven is a better country. There are many good coun- 
tries on earth — countries like Canaan of old, flowing with 
milk and honey — producing all the necessaries, and even 
the luxuries, of life. Our own is a good country. It is one 
of which Ave may well be proud. For, with all its imperfec- 
tions, our boasted liberty, social, civic, political, and reli- 
gious, is a priceless boom But heaven is a far better coun- 
try than this of ours. It is not a mere abstract creation of 
fancy or faith; but a better country, with all the reality that 
belongs to the hills and valleys and winding streams of 
earth. It is a country diversified with landscapes, waving 
with forests, shaded with mountains, musical with waterfalls, 
girded with oceans, and garlanded with flowers. It is a 
country just as real and far more substantial and abiding 
than any earthly country. For the pestilence does not waste 
this better country; neither do the lightnings smite, the 
storms destroy not, and the inhabitants thereof never sicken 
nor die. It is a better — that is, a heavenly — country. 

In the Heaven of heavens is located the Heavenly 
Jerusalem — the city of God. This city is the seat of his 
imperial government, the metropolis of his boundless em- 
pire, the royal emporium of his vast universe. In this mar- 
velous city is the many mansioned house of the Father. It 
is the city of angels and archangels, seraphim and cheru- 



428 THE BEAUTIFUL CITY OF GOD. 

bim. It is a city with gates of pearl, walls of precious 
stones, and streets of pure gold. It is a city with everlast- 
ing foundations, whose maker is God. It is to be enriched 
with the glory and honor of all nations and all worlds. It is 
a city lighted up with its own indwelling glory, outshining 
the sun in his noonday splendor; while multiplied millions 
are walking in its golden light. Such are the Divine reve- 
lations, and they should not be so spiritualized as to take 
away all substance and reality from the city of our God. 
To do so is to make the Heavenly Jerusalem more airy and 
transient than the towers and temples of clouds which form 
and melt in the glories of the setting sun. 

In the center of this beautiful city God sits enthroned in 
all his triune majesty and matchless glory. From beneath 
his snow-white throne flows the crystal fountains of the riv- 
er of life, whose sparkling waters, like gems of liquid light, 
sweep gracefully through the courts and gardens of the Eter- 
nal King, and, winding their w T ay beyond the emerald walls, 
disappear like a line of shimmering silver amid the glories 
of heaven's loveliest landscapes. This city is the perfection 
of beauty, the joy of the whole universe. Enthroned in it 
sits the King of kings, as the Chief among ten thousand and 
the One altogether lovely, wielding his golden scepter of 
love, while worlds bow in willing obedience and loving 
fidelity. The grandeur and glory of all earthly cities dwin- 
dle into insignificance when compared with those of the 
Heavenly Jerusalem. It is simply indescribably beautiful, 
and grand and glorious beyond the conception of finite 
minds. 

Dear readers, we are all pilgrims and strangers on the 



THE HAVEN OF ETERNAL REST. 429 

earth. Here we have no continuing city. We are ail voy- 
agers upon time's tempestuous ocean. But if true to God, 
it will soon be our exalted privilege to look out, by faith, 
through the dim portals of death and behold the sapphire 
walls and shining domes of that blessed city toward 
which we have been so anxiously steering our frail barks 
through all the storms and conflicts of this inconstant life. 

It will soon be ours to ground the weapons of our Chris- 
tian warfare and anchor in the haven of eternal rest. 
Through the dark gateway of death we will pass on up to be 
crowned with light and rejoice eternally in the Heaven of 
heavens. 

Dear unsaved friends, you hard-working toilers in the 
workshops of earth, do you not desire, when your labor is 
ended below, to live in that bright world where want and 
woe are unknown, to walk the gold-paved streets of that city 
without sin, and mix and mingle only with those who are 
perfectly happy, because perfectly holy? Certainly you do, 
and such is your exalted privilege; for the pearly gates of 
that beautiful city stand open all the time, and a great fam- 
ily, with pure and loving hearts, invite you most affection- 
ately to come and make the Heaven of the Bible your eter- 
nal home. Many who shared our earthly homes with us 
have gone on before, and are waiting to welcome us to that 
world where parting will be no more. Many who labored 
long and suffered much for us in this life would rejoice with 
the angels if they knew we would join them in the life to 
come. Does it not make you long for heaven when you 
think of the many from the circles of your own friends, kin- 
dred, and families, who have gone to that blessed home, say- 



430 THE OLD SHIP OF ZION. 

ing, perhaps, in their last farewell, Meet me in heaven? 
Then get on board the Old Ship of Zion, and she will take 
yon home. 

The wise of this world have launched many vessels upon 
the ocean of time, and booked them for the better world, that 
will never reach the desired haven. Human crafts cannot 
weather the storms of life. They are altogether inadequate 
for such a perilous voyage. It matters not whether they be 
brigs, barges, sloops, schooners, tugboats, ironclad gunboats, 
massive ships, or men-of-war, they will all go down ere they 
reach mid-ocean without a glimpse of the glory land. There 
is but one vessel that can weather the tempests of time and 
reach the shores of eternity. That is the grand Old Ship of 
Zion. She will battle successfully with the crested surges 
and foaming billows of time's watery main, and ride trium- 
phantly at laet into the heavenly harbor of eternal rest. She 
is a stanch old vessel, tried and true; and with King Jesus 
as her Captain, the Holy Spirit as her helmsman, and the 
angels of heaven charged with her keeping, piratical de- 
mons may darken her pathway and threaten her overthrow; 
but at length, amid the sweet hosannas and loud halleluiahs 
of heaven, she will land the last saint safely on the fair banks 
of eternal deliverance. 

Heaven is a world supremely blest; 

A world that knows no anxious care; 
A world where saints forever rest, 

And with their King its glories share. 

Heaven is a home of perfect bliss; 

A home that knows no tears or sighs; 
A home where friends we'll never miss, 

Nor stop to wipe our weeping eyes. 



THE WORLD FOR WHICH I SIGH. 431 

Heaven is a house of mansions fair; 

A house of beauty, great and grand; 
A house with many mansions there, 

Enough for all Christ's faithful hand. 

Heaven is a kingdom rich and great; 

A kingdom with an untold dower; 
A kingdom with a King of State, 

Wielding a scepter of matchless power. 

Heaven is a country fairer far; 

A country more to be desired; 
A country better, grander far, 

Than any angels e'er admired. 

Heaven is a city full of light; 

A city where our Jesus reigns ; 
A city without sun or night, 

Where all God's majesty proclaim. 

This is the world for which I sigh; 

The world in which I soon shall be; 
The world it takes to satisfy; 

The Heaven of heavens to me. 



FTXTS, 



. 









> 











V > 



£ 
























■ \ o 

■ 



oo N 



V 






V* 


































































v 






















































LIBRARY OF CONGRESS £] 

029 788 996 5 



m 



m I 



m 



